


Past and Future Memories

by Interstella



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bottom Keith (Voltron), Coitus Interruptus, M/M, Omega Keith (Voltron), Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Smut, Time Travel, Top Lance (Voltron), WIP, elements of a/b/o, kind of, m-preg, multiple instances of same character, pregnant Keith, sexually frustrated keith
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:08:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27514342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Interstella/pseuds/Interstella
Summary: While taking readings of a strange temporal anomaly surrounding a wormhole, Keith and Lance find themselves face to face with their past. While trying to hide the future from their past selves, they find out some news that makes things that much more difficult.-- --“You thinking alternate realities again?” Lance asked Keith, finally looking over the crowd.“No.” Keith said slowly, “We were taking readings on a temporal anomaly, Lance.”“Right…”“You do know what ‘temporal’ means, right?”After a beat, Lance replied with a long “Oooh.” as realization struck him. Before he could say anything else, the green paladin stepped forward.“Temporal anomaly? So you guys are us from another time?” She seemed overly excited about that idea, and Lance couldn’t help but grin at her.“That, my dear baby Pidgeon, is exactly what we’re thinking.”
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 79
Kudos: 429





	1. Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> I normally stick to a single character POV for the majority of my stories, but this one goes back and forth between two groups. (I’m expanding my creative abilities.) Also, it fits better for this fic (honestly, I just couldn’t decide which group to follow). If the switching is unclear, let me know and I’ll try to fix it going forward.

The pod was drifting, alone in the universe and without power. It’s lifeless shell darkened by the hollow reaches of space, spiraling slowly towards nothing. For days it moved alone, creeping forward with no destination in mind, its two occupants working tirelessly every hour to find a way to restore power.   
  
“Damn it!” Lance sighed as he inched himself forward, cables dangling limply in his hand as he tried desperately to remember which one was supposed to connect where. “Let’s try…  _ this _ !” He jammed the end of one into the slot he was  _ almost _ sure was the right one.    
  
Sparks flew and he muttered another curse, flailing backwards and almost hitting his head on the pilot seat. “Damn it!” He sighed and leaned back, taking a moment.    
  
“No luck?” Keith asked from behind him, and Lance leaned his head back to look at him.    
  
“Nope. Damn Altean tech.” He grumbled.    
  
“Thought you were the  _ expert _ .” Keith teased, smirking down at him and handing him a ration pouch.   
  
“You should know by now that when I say shit like that, I’m usually talking from my ass.” Lance said with a chuckle, accepting the pouch.    
  
“Learned that a _ long _ time ago.” Keith settled himself down onto the pilot seat and looked out of the window. “You got anywhere with it?” He questioned.    
  
“No.” Lance groaned, frustration obvious. “It’s like the crystal’s quintessence is just  _ gone _ , I don’t get it!” He sprawled on the floor, his head moving to rest on Keith’s leg as he helped himself to the ration pouch in his hand. “What about you?”    
  
“No answer. From  _ anyone _ .” Keith answered, passing him the communicator that he’d been tinkering with over the past few days. “It’s like there’s nobody out there.”    
  
“Thought this thing could get a signal from the other side of the universe…?” Lance muttered, concentrating on the green device in his hand as he looked it over, trying a few buttons.    
  
“It  _ can _ . That’s what I don’t get.”    
  
“Think the wormhole sent us to another reality or something? Somewhere where our tech doesn’t work?” Lance questioned idly, attention half on the communicator and food, other half on Keith.    
  
“God I hope not.” Keith closed his eyes as he leaned back, exhaustion slowly creeping up on them both. “There was no evidence of a trans-reality comet or anything like that…”   
  
“Doesn’t mean there’s no other way. Might be something we’ve never seen before.”    
  
“Could be.” Keith agreed with a sigh. “We  _ were _ supposed to be gathering data on the weird temporal readings Pidge found. Could’ve been something we missed.”    
  
They fell silent for a moment, both contemplating things and trying not to focus on how tired they were as they ate their daily allotment of rations.   
  
“How much air we got left?” Lance eventually asked and handed the communicator back and began to climb back under the console.    
  
“Four, maybe five quintants.” The words were said calmly. Five days was more than enough time for them to figure something out before they had to panic. They’d been through worse, after all.    
  
“Better get back to it then. Quicker we can fix the power, quicker we can figure out what’s going on…”    
  
He had almost got it (he was  _ sure _ this time), when the silence of the pod was broken by Keith. “Lance…” He sounded unsure, maybe a little concerned. But he wasn’t panicking, or barking orders, so Lance was content to let him just speak while he continued to work.    
  
“Lance…” Keith said again, this time sounding a little distracted. “You might wanna see this.”    
  
Frowning, Lance pulled back and lifted himself on to his knees, peeking over the console and out the window. What he saw made his eyes grow wide and his mouth drop. “Keith… Keith is that what… I think it is?” He questioned, unable to tear his eyes from the vision before him, unwilling to even blink.    
  
“I… think so.”    
  
The ship lurched and Lance finally pulled his concentration from the window and glanced down at the one panel he’d managed to get working. “Well… they’re bringing us in. So we’ll find out soon, I guess.”    
  
\-- -- -- -- -- --    
  
  
“I’m picking something up… I think.” Pidge stared at the Altean computer, brow furrowed as she tried to understand the forign writing. “Looks like a ship?” She looked up at Coran, who was supposed to be teaching her how to use the system, but instead seemed to be distracted by his mustache and his monologuing lecture on… something.    
  
“What? Oh. Yes, that’s a ship.” The man said brightly, if not a little condescending. “Can you tell me what type?” He hadn’t looked closely at the screen, and Pidge frowned.    
  
“That’s the thing. I think it’s… Altean? Which obviously it can’t be, so I’m probably reading this wrong. But that’s the word for Altea, right?” She asked, pointing at a particular squiggle.    
  
Coran leaned over her shoulder, much too close but Pidge didn’t call him on it. She just leaned to the side a little as she watched.    
  
“Yes.” Coran was quieter now, his usual exuberance missing as he frowned at the words floating before him. “That… Does say Altean…” He was silent for a moment before he threw himself into action, hitting buttons with a speed that left Pidge dizzy as she tried to follow what he was doing.    
  
After a moment, the Altean was on the coms, calling the team and Allura to the bridge. When they arrived, he stood tall and turned to face them.    
  
“Number Five here has found something rather interesting.” He began, gesturing to the console. “It appears to be a drifting ship of Altean origin!”    
  
This got everybody’s attention. Allura was the first to move to the console, her strides long and even, covering the distance quickly. She gasped as she saw the feed and in moments was piloting the Castle closer.    
  
“You think it’s just been drifting since the war started?” Lance asked, “I mean, things don’t decay in space, right?”    
  
“Maybe.” Keith answered, “But it could also be a trap. We should be ready for anything.”    
  
“Why are you so paranoid? There might not even be anyone on board!” Lance objected.    
  
“There are two lifesigns on board.” Allura answered, looking over the rapidly changing text on the console in front of her. “But I can’t get a good enough reading to tell you their species.”    
  
“Can we bring it on board?” Shiro asked, eyes tracking the pod as it slowly rotated forward.    
  
“It could be a trap!” Keith objected, “Who knows who’s on board!”    
  
“Yeah, as much as I hate to agree with Keith, which really I don’t because not going into danger sounds like the better idea? We get danger enough as it is without having to go walking into it so maybe we shouldn’t bring them on board until we can figure out who they are and why they have an Altean ship?” Hunk babbled, looking more than a little green.    
  
“They could be Altean!” Allura protested, working at the controls. “I’m bringing them in. Suit up and head to the docking bay.” She ordered, not giving anyone the time to object.    
  
\-- -- -- -- --    
  
The pod shuddered as it landed. With a final look between them, Lance and Keith made their way to the airlock and slowly stepped down the ramp, not quite sure what to expect.    
  
As they disembarked, the door at the other end of the room opened and people began to pile in, their white and colourful armour universally distinctive. Keith and Lance shared one more look before descending the final few steps out of their ship.    
  
“Look Keith! Baby Paladins!” Lance whisper shouted, tugging on Keith’s arm as the half-Galran stared at the people in the other people in the room.    
  
“Yeah… I can see that... ” He said slowly, watching as the younger paladins regarded them with shock and confusion. “Uh… Hi?” He tried, feeling incredibly out of his depth. He had definitely gotten better at the whole social thing, but he wasn’t quite prepared for this.    
  
“Who are you?” Shiro asked, stepping forward. His hair still had dark strands, the only white the small tuft at the front. It was like stepping backwards into a memory.    
  
“Uh… Keith…” Keith responded.    
  
“You thinking alternate realities again?” Lance asked Keith, finally looking over the crowd.    
  
“No.” Keith said slowly, “We were taking readings on a  _ temporal anomaly _ , Lance.”    
  
“Right…”    
  
“You  _ do _ know what ‘temporal’ means, right?”    
  
After a beat, Lance replied with a long “Oooh.” as realization struck him. Before he could say anything else, the green paladin stepped forward.    
  
“Temporal anomaly? So you guys are us from another time?” She seemed overly excited about that idea, and Lance couldn’t help but grin at her.    
  
“That, my dear baby Pidgeon, is  _ exactly _ what we’re thinking.”    
  
She screwed her face up at Lance’s nickname, but didn’t seem any less fascinated. She was about to move towards them when little Keith stepped in front of her. “Could still be a trap.” He warned her, “How do we know you’re telling the truth!?” He questioned, staring at Lance.    
  
It took the cuban a moment to realize that they were  _ all _ staring at him, and then another to figure out why. He’d grown so used to the Altean marks on his cheeks that he didn’t even think about them any more. And the rest of the universe was used to seeing him with them, and pretty much everybody knew the reason they were there.    
  
It had been a long time since anyone had said anything about them.    
  
“If you’re really us, then tell us something that only  _ we _ would know.” Young Lance challenged, chest puffed up and acting for all he was worth like he was trying to be intimidating.    
  
Lance thought for a moment before speaking in rapid spanish. “ _ Your name is Leandro Carlos Euquerio Fernan McClain Sanchez. Son of Maria McClain Gracia and Roberto Sanchez Alverez. You are the youngest of five children, something that Rachel will never let you live down. You lived by Varadero beach, but were born in Havana. You like the garlic knots mami makes and would die for papi’s ropa vieja. Your first girlfriend was from Italy, and your first boyfriend was from America. You wet the bed until you were twelve-.”  _   
  
Beside Lance, Keith badly hid a snort of surprised amusement. “You did?” He questioned, prompting Lance to lift a hand and make a zipping motion towards him.    
  
“A-bah-bah-bah. Mouth shut.” He scolded, never taking his eyes from the younger Lance, who was staring at him wide eyed, mouth agape.   
  
“What did he say?” Shiro asked, frowning as he kept his eyes on the newcomers.    
  
“Uh… Yep. He knows me…” Younger Lance squeaked and Lance grinned at him.    
  
“That doesn’t prove anything. He couldn’ve got that information somewhere!” Younger Keith objected, “You really believe in  _ time travel _ ?” He questioned.    
  
“You really believe in ten thousand year old magical robotic lions that can combine into a massive robotic warrior, powered by soul magic, that’s destined to defend the universe and bring peace to all?” Keith responded, looking more amused than anything else.    
  
This stunned the younger paladins into silence for a few seconds before Hunk spoke up. “Y’know… he’s got a point…”    
  
They were quiet for a few more minutes, before young Keith spoke up, apparently wanting to  _ seriously _ object to this situation. “If you’re really us, then what’s with that?” He questioned, gesturing to Lance.    
  
“What’s with what?” He questioned.    
  
“The-the Altean marks!”   
  
“Would you believe they’re a tattoo?” Lance questioned, knowing the answer. He felt the disapproving look from the Keith beside him, but was so used to it that he didn’t bother responding.    
  
“They’re  _ glowing _ !” Little Keith objected again.    
  
“... _ Alien _ ...tattoos?” Even to his own ears, it was obvious he was lying. “Okay, fine. There was some Altean alchemy involved and things got weird, but I am you. Or I was.” He frowned a little, “A  _ long _ time ago. God Keith, look how  _ tiny _ they all are!”    
  
“I saw.” Keith responded with a sigh. “Look, why don’t we talk somewhere more comfortable. Hell, we can go to the infirmary and do a biometrics scan. Lance might not match exactly, but I’m pretty sure I will.”    
  
“Blades induction.” Lance said, reminding him of the fact that awakening his Galran DNA may have changed it a little.    
  
“Right. I’ll  _ mostly _ match up.” Keith amended.    
  
“Space is weird.” Lance added to the younger paladins with a shrug, as if this was an ordinary thing to have happen to them.    
  
\-- -- -- -- --    
  
“Ah, the scan is complete.” Coran said with a grin, turning to the two familiar strangers who sat waiting the results. Behind him, all five paladins were gathered. Allura had agreed to stay on the flight deck for now, letting the others determine if the supposedly future Keith and Lance were legit.    
  
“And?” Keith prompted, looking at the strangers with barely hidden suspicion.    
  
“Well,” Coran gestured to the older ‘Lance’, “He is a 83% match to Number Three, and he,” He gestured to the older ‘Keith’, “Is a 98% match.” Coran was frowning at the data, but didn’t say anything more on it.    
  
“So they’re really us?” Pidge asked, vague apprehension now lifting to extreme enthusiasm. “From the future!?”    
  
“It appears so!” Coran’s usual exuberance was back as he grinned at the paladins.    
  
Pidge lit up, her mouth opening to no doubt barrage them with questions before Shiro put a hand on her shoulder and addressed the older paladins.    
  
“You two look dead on your feet. When was the last time you got some sleep?” He questioned.    
  
Both the men on the bench gave him an odd, fond smile, one that he was only really used to seeing on Keith.    
  
“I dunno.” Older Lance offered sincerely.    
  
“About… thirty, maybe forty varga ago.” The older Keith answered for them both, to which his companion nodded.    
  
“Sounds about right.” He managed around a yawn. “Only had a couple of quintants worth of air left, needed to get the power fixed on the pod.”    
  
“Why don’t you go and sleep. Hunk and Pidge can have a look at your pod and see if they can get it running for you.”    
  
The older pair shared a look before Keith turned back to them a little awkwardly. “We’d… rather you didn’t?”    
  
“Why, have something to hide?” It seemed that Keith’s suspicion was still very much alive, and he wasn’t bothering to conceal it at all.    
  
“Yeah.” Older Keith answered easily. “You haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’m sure Pidge can tell you all about the butterfly effect.”    
  
“You haven’t seen the Butterfly Effect!?” Lance turned to Keith looking offended and Shiro sighed. Why did that boy always miss the point?    
  
“Still. You should get some rest. We can discuss everything in the morning after we’ve all had some sleep.” Shiro’s tone left no room for argument and the paladin’s sighed. Pidge deflated and hung her head, but Shiro ignored her for now. “Coran can show you to some guest quarters.”    
  
“We know the way.” Older Lance reminded him as he stood from the bench and stretched, but Shiro just smiled at them and turned to Coran.    
  
“Coran, if you would?”    
  
Thankfully, the older pair seemed to understand that Shiro still didn’t entirely trust them, and Coran was there to make sure they didn’t go wandering. They didn’t object, merely followed the old Altean out of the room.    
  
“So… What’s a Varga?” Lance asked the room.    
  
\-- -- -- -- --    
  
Coran led them to a pair of rooms in the far reaches of the Castleship. The only thing that was really close by was the training room. It was probably on purpose, Keith thought, since they would have to go through numerous corridors and rooms before getting to anywhere important, giving them more chance to be seen if they were to try to do something untoward.   
  
Keith didn’t really blame them for their paranoia - it wasn’t even really paranoia. The universe had told them time and time again that it was out to get them, so they simply believed it.    
  
Which was going to make it hard to get their trust long enough to figure out how to get them to help without giving away too much.    
  
Keith hadn’t been lying when he’d said that he was hiding things. He didn’t want to mess up the future, at least not without thinking things through yet. Oh how he wished that the others were with them. Pidge could explain the sciency things, Hunk would probably be able to fix the pod somehow, and Shiro would know exactly what to do and what to tell the younger paladins.    
  
Also. That was just downright  _ weird _ .    
  
In his life, Keith had seen a lot of weird things. A lot. From flying magical lions, to interdimensional travel, and even glimpses of the future while riding on the back of a space whale inside a quantum abyss. Really, his entire  _ life _ had been weird.    
  
Which was probably why he wasn’t actually surprised, or even remotely freaked out about their current predicament.    
  
As soon as they were shown to their rooms, Keith and Lance both entered one of them. They sat together on the bed for a long, silent minute.    
  
“This place brings up memories.” Lance spoke first, eyes roaming around the mostly empty room.    
  
“Yeah…” Keith agreed, somewhat wistfully.    
  
“I wonder if they’ve fixed the pool yet?” Lance idly questioned.    
  
“Probably not. I get the feeling they haven’t been out here that long.” Keith pointed out as he bent over to take his boots off. He pulled his bayard from his jacket pocket and placed it beside his boots, adding his belt and knife to the pile before finally dropping his jacket on top.    
  
“Yeah, I get that feeling too. Man, I forgot how much of a suspicious asshole you were.” Lance chuckled and copied Keith’s example of removing his outerwear.    
  
“I’m still a suspicious asshole.”    
  
“Nah, you’ve gone all soft in your old age.” This only earned him an eye roll from the half-Galran. Keith shuffled on the bed to lay down beside the wall, leaving as much space as he could for Lancec.    
  
“So how much do we tell them?” Lance asked, taking his spot beside Keith.    
  
“Nothing.” Keith answered simply. He sighed when Lance looked like he was about to protest. “Lance, you’ve made me watch the Butterfly Effect at  _ least _ a dozen times. Not to mention all the  _ other _ old sci-fi stuff. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from your terrible taste in media, it’s that telling about the future  _ never _ ends well.”    
  
“Okay, one, my taste in tv is  _ not _ terrible. You just have no appreciation for the classics. And two, we have the chance to  _ change _ things. Think about it. With what we know, we can end the war in a phoeb! Think about all the lives we’d save!”   
  
“And then think about what happens after.” Keith pointed out, wrapping an arm around Lance’s shoulder and pulling him close. Only after Lance was comfortably situated with his head on his shoulder did he continue. “Yeah, it’d be great to save all those lives, to end the war early. But without the contacts we made forming the coalition, what happens  _ after _ ? If we never met the Blades, the Galra would probably still be hunted, probably to extinction. With the imperial family gone, there would be a war for who takes over, and there’s no guarantee that the next guy won’t be worse than Zarkon or Honerva.    
  
“We didn’t bring peace just by defeating them. We did it through the friends and contacts we made along the way. We united  _ thousands _ of planets that might otherwise never have got along. If we interfere, there’s no telling what would happen. We might make things worse.”    
  
Lance, to his credit, listened to everything Keith said before countering. It was something they had learned to do a long time ago, but it hadn’t been easy. It had taken them months, if not years for Lance to get over his feelings of inadequacy and to realize that Keith honestly thought of him as an equal, and longer still for him to stop feeling the need to argue and instead discuss.    
  
“Tell that to all the people that lost someone. To all the families torn apart. You  _ saw _ what it was like after the war, how many people died even in just the time that we were paladins. Maybe we don’t have to end the war now, but we  _ could _ help stop some of that. Save more people, more lives. More families.”   
  
“I don’t think we can risk it.” Keith admitted. “And even if we  _ knew _ we could, there’s only two of us. The paladins out there aren’t  _ ready _ to take on Zarkon, let alone Lotor or Honerva. They’d be squashed like flies on a windscreen. It took us all a long time to get to where we needed to be.”    
  
“Damn you.” Lance muttered through a yawn. “I still totally disagree, but I’m way too tired to argue. I’ll follow your lead for now.”    
  
“Thanks.” Keith turned and gently kissed Lance’s temple. “We should sleep.”    
  
“Yeah.” Lance agreed, eyes already falling shut. “But you know that us even  _ being _ here probably changed a bunch of shit.”    
  
“Probably. But if we’ve learned anything, it’s that together we can adapt and overcome anything.” Careful not to move Lance too much, Keith reached down for the blanket hanging over the edge of the bed. He lay it over the two of them and settled back down beside Lance, who was already sleeping.    
  
“Sleep well, mi amor.” Keith whispered before following Lance into slumber. 


	2. Showing Off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for the feedback! 
> 
> I'm back with a second chapter! 
> 
> There is one more chapter mostly written, but it'll take a while to get it all written up.

What passed for morning in space came, the lights brightening slowly to ‘daytime’ settings. Long established habits had both Lance and Keith rising the moment the lighting changed and after a few seconds to orientate themselves to their new surroundings, they climbed out of bed.    
  
“Dibs first shower!” Lance half shouted as he bounced out of bed, quickly gathering his discarded outerwear.    
  
“We’re in the Castle of Lions.” Keith muttered, rising a little slower than his companion. “There are entire  _ rooms _ of showers. Five of them, in fact.” He watched with amusement as Lance quickly dressed in a flurry of activity.    
  
“Right. But I get one first.” Never one to back down, Lance grinned at Keith and leaned down to give him a quick kiss.    
  
But before either of them could make their way to said shower rooms, there was a knock at the door. “Good morning!” Coran’s voice came a moment later. “Would you like to join us for breakfast?”    
  
Sharing a glance, Keith shrugged and Lance grinned. They knew that it wasn’t really a request or invitation. While it may have seemed their story was accepted, neither Shiro nor Keith were likely to fully trust them yet. Coran was likely there not to guide them, but to watch over them.    
  
“Sure!” Lance answered, opening the door.    
  
Coran looked behind him and saw Keith pull on his last boot, looking a little surprised to see them together.    
  
Not letting his old friend dwell on things too much, Lance threw an arm around him and began walking down the corridor. “So what’s on the menu? Food goo? Oh man, I haven’t had food go in  _ forever _ !”    
  
How he managed to sound so enthusiastic about food goo, Keith would never know. He chuckled as he followed them out the door.   
  
“C’mon Keith, what’re you waiting for! Can’t let the food go go cold!” Lance called out over his shoulder.    
  
“No. We couldn’t have  _ that _ happen.” The sarcasm was palatable, but apparently lost on Coran, who glanced back at Keith, seemingly a little bewildered but taking it in his stride.    
  
“Food goo is served at room temperature. Anything above that would ruin the taste.” The Altean pointed out.    
  
“Oh don’t we know it.” Lance muttered. “One time, Hunk got creative. Lemme tell you, warm food goo does  _ not _ react well to the human body.”    
  
“I think it’s more that the human body doesn’t react well to the goo.” Keith pointed out, finally catching up to them and accepting the arm that Lance threw over his own shoulder.    
  
They arrived in the kitchen like that, Lance in the middle with an arm thrown over each of his companions. As they entered, a sudden silence caught their attention.    
  
“Aww, were you talking about us?” Lance asked, “C’mon, don’t stop on my account. I’d love to hear what you think of the ‘older, cooler, more grizzled, older us.” He grinned as he dropped his arm from Coran’s shoulders, keeping one arm over Keith.    
  
Sitting around the table, the rest of the Castle’s inhabitants just stared at them for a moment. “Well…” Shiro began, “We were hoping to ask you a few questions…”    
  
“No can do, Space dad.” Lance answered, finally dropping his arm from Keith’s shoulders to make his way to the food dispenser. “Butterfly effect. Can’t say anything that could change how the future goes.” He helped himself to a large bowl of goo and grinned at the others before taking a seat.    
  
Rolling his eyes, Keith did the same. Instead of the usual green goo, he reached up into another compartment and helped himself to the purple stuff he had grown accustomed to during his time with the Blades.    
  
“We have  _ purple _ goo?” Hunk asked, eyes going wide as he watched Keith take a place at the table.    
  
“Yeah. Wouldn't recommend you trying it though.” Keith answered. “It’s an… acquired taste.”    
  
From the head of the table, Allura was giving him an odd look. So far, both himself and Lance had managed to ignore her presence, not sure if they were quite ready to face her without giving too much away.    
  
It had taken them both a long time to accept her fate, Lance longer than Keith, but eventually they had made peace with it. Now, she was alive and well, and honestly, Keith had no idea how to deal with that. He wasn’t sure if he was ready. If he would ever be ready.    
  
He could only imagine what Lance was feeling.    
  
“From our scans, we had determined that the composition of the ‘purple’ goo would cause gastrointestinal distress to humans.” She said slowly.    
  
Keith nodded and shrugged. “Doesn’t digest well.” He agreed. “But… my body learned how to cope.”    
  
“Keith has weird tastes.” Lance began to cover for him, knowing full well that it was Keith’s Galra heritage that allowed him to consume the meal without problems. It had been developed for Galra, after all. “You should see what he puts on his pizza.” Lance finished with a grimace.    
  
“There’s nothing wrong with pineapple on pizza!” Keith objected, rolling his eyes at their long standing argument. They had both long ago agreed to disagree on the topic, but it was in their nature to bicker.    
  
“Here here!” Pidge agreed, seemingly in high spirits, while younger Lance spluttered in protest.    
  
“Pineapple is a  _ fruit _ ! Fruits don’t belong on pizza!”   
  
“But… I mean… Tomato’s a fruit…” Hunk objected, “And you can’t really have a pizza without tomatoes…”    
  
Coran and Allura both looked a little lost, but amused all the same. Shiro just dropped his head into his palm and groaned as he listened to the completely unneeded argument.    
  
“Tomato’s  _ barely  _ a fruit.” Young Lance pointed out. “It’s pretty much an honorary vegetable!”    
  
Young Keith was oddly quiet, but nobody seemed to notice his lack of participation. Keith watched the interactions at the table, and wondered just how early in their journey they were. He remembered for the first few months, how he had always felt off kilter with discussions like this one, never quite sure when to add his opinion. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Lance drawing him in, Keith was fully of the belief that he would have never participated.    
  
“At least I’m not like Shiro.” Keith said with a barely hidden grin. “He likes  _ anchovies _ .”    
  
The resulting looks of disgust from the younger paladins was exactly what he had been expecting. It wasn’t exactly a new topic for him, after all. They’d had this discussion at least a dozen times before the end of the war, and a good few times after.    
  
“Anchovies? Really?” Younger Lance asked with a grimace. “Man, and here I was thinking you’d have  _ some _ taste.”    
  
“Alright, alright, we’ve had our fun.” Shiro grumbled, looking put out to anyone who didn’t know him well enough to see the amusement in his eyes. “Let’s get down to business.”    
  
“To defeat! The HUNS!”   
  
“Not now, Lance.” Shiro sighed, waiting for quiet and for everybody to give him their attention. “You said you won’t tell us about the future?” He questioned, looking directly at Keith and Lance.    
  
“We haven’t agreed on how much to tell you.” Lance answered, dropping fully into his professional persona, one that Keith had seen time and time again at the negotiation table. “And until we do, I’m gonna follow Keith’s instincts on this one. Once we tell you things, we can’t take that knowledge back. So it’s better to keep things under wraps until we can figure out our next move.”   
  
“But you even  _ being _ here changes things.” Pidge objected, looking at the two of them. “Even seeing you tells us things. For example, you both live to be like forty-”   
  
“Hey!” Lance objected, his professionalism disappearing for a moment. “I’ll have you know that I’m-”   
  
“Lance.” Keith objected, not even comfortable giving them their ages.   
  
“Not forty.” Lance finished with a sigh.    
  
“So we know you don’t die on our next mission. And we also know that you weren’t in paladin armour when we found you, so that means you weren’t on a mission for Voltron. But you said that you were looking into readings for  _ me _ , which means  _ I _ survive too. You also have physical characteristics that are different to what you have now,” She gestured to their faces, to Lance’s Altean marks and Keith’s scar. “So that tells us more. Then there’s the fact that your ship has both Altean  _ and _ Earth tech, so obviously we make it home at  _ some _ point.”   
  
“You were in our ship!?”    
  
“Of course she was in our ship.” Keith rolled his eyes, “It’s  _ Pidge _ .”   
  
“You didn’t even lock it.” Pidge objected.   
  
“Wouldn’t matter. You all have access anyway.” Lance shrugged, having calmed down from his outburst. “Didn’t exactly have time to reprogram the biometrics.”    
  
“So what did you learn?” Keith asked, knowing that if anyone could figure out more than they should in just a few hours, it was Pidge.    
  
“Not much.” She admitted, shoulders slumping a little. “It looked like everything was written in Altean, and all the controls were in the wrong places.”    
  
“Keeps pirates confused. Not many people can read Altean.”    
  
“I couldn’t even figure out what  _ powers _ it.” Pidge did seem awfully grumpy with being stumped, and Keith couldn’t help but chuckle. He stood and grabbed his and Lance’s now empty bowls, rinsing them before putting it into the Altean dishwasher. He hadn’t been in this kitchen in a  _ long _ time, but he still knew his way around.    
  
He leaned on the counter, watching the people at the table. This was bringing up a lot of memories, and it suddenly struck him how  _ young _ they had all been. With the exception of Shiro and Coran, they had all been children fighting in a war that wasn’t really their own.    
  
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually.” He assured Pidge, “ _ After _ you figure out how to get back in.” He amended, making a note to change the programming on the ship as soon as possible.    
  
“You say you don’t want to tell us anything, but you’re happy to let Pidge figure it out?” Young Keith finally spoke up, eyeing his counterpart with suspicion.    
  
Keith just snorted in amusement. “Not like I could stop her.” He shrugged, “Once Pidge has her mind set on something, not even a flock of stampeding Yelan could stop her.”    
  
“Stampeding what?” Younger Lance asked, frowning as if trying to figure out if this was something he should know by now.    
  
“Kinda like flying hippos.” Older Lance explained. “But they’re bright pink. I think they’re Keith’s favorite animal, like ever.”    
  
“I like hippos.” Keith answered simply with a shrug. It wasn’t like he was embarrassed about the fact.    
  
Shiro frowned, “So you’re not even going to try to stop her?” He questioned.    
  
“No point.” Lance answered, “Might be able to slow her down, but Keith’s right. Pidge won’t back down from that kind of challenge.”    
  
“So why don’t you just tell us?” Hunk asked, “Save her the trouble?”    
  
“Because they’re not planning on staying long enough for her to.” Young Keith answered for them.    
  
“Bingo.” Lance answered with a grin, giving the red paladin a wink. “Soon as we figure out how we got here, we’re gonna skedaddle.”    
  
“You have no intentions of helping us?” Allura asked, gaze flicking between the two time travellers. “The information you have could aid us in defeating Zarkon, and yet you would keep it to yourselves?”    
  
“It’s not our place, princess.” Lance couldn’t hide the sadness in his voice or his eyes as he finally turned his attention to her. “Keith brought up a good point to me last night. Killing Zarkon wasn’t what brought peace to the universe. Take him out too early and you’ll just have another war on your hands to figure out who takes his place.”    
  
“So we do it then?” Hunk asked, “We kill Zarkon?”    
  
Lance grimaced at his slip up and sighed. “Hunk, my man, don’t make this harder than it is. I’m not gonna confirm or deny anything you ask. So when my big mouth slips up, just ignore it for me, kay?”    
  
They all knew that wouldn’t happen, and the room fell into a moment of silence.    
  
“Well…” Allura said slowly, “Even with our new… guest’s silence… there is no excuse for not being prepared. Finish your breakfasts and be in the training room in half a varga.” With that, she excused herself from the table and left the room.    
  
Keith noticed Lance’s relief at the princess being gone and felt a pang of sympathy. Allura had been one of his closest friends, but she had been more than that to Lance. He returned to his seat at the table and gave Lance’s knee a reassuring pat, just letting him know that he understood and was there for him.    
  
“So… you guys gonna train with us?” Young Lance asked, looking a little excited about the prospect. “Bet you can teach us all kinds of badass stuff.” He was primarily talking to his counterpart, seemingly content with ignoring Keith for the moment.    
  
“Nah. Might teach you too much. Gonna take this as an excuse to take it easy.” Lance answered, stretching his long arms above his head. “We’ll watch though.” He added with a grin.    
  
\-- -- -- -- -- --    
  
Having the older paladins watching them was a little off putting. Everybody seemed to be making more mistakes than usual, which led to them being knocked around by the gladiator a little too much, and frankly making asses out of themselves.    
  
It didn’t take long for Shiro to sigh and call an end to the combat training. “Alright paladins.” He gathered them up. “Lets try something else.”    
  
“Thank god.” The older Lance muttered from behind him, and he tried to ignore him and focus on the kids he was trying to train. “That was just painful to watch.”    
  
The older Keith made a noise of agreement that was infinitely familiar to Shiro, making him believe that maybe they really were who they said they were. It was the small things, and while their mannerisms had changed a little, they were still the same at the core. The way they held themselves, the inflections they used in their words. It really was like looking into the future sometimes.   
  
“Let’s try the maze.” He suggested, thinking that if the time travellers were in the observation room, it might be a little less daunting for the younger paladins. There was a grumble from the team as they made their trek out of the main training room to watch from above. “Lance, you stay behind.”    
  
“Aww man, why do I always have to go first!?” The cuban objected.    
  
“Cause you need the most practice.” Keith jibed. “Sets the bar low for us.”    
  
“Keith, you’ll be directing.” Shiro announced quickly, trying to head off another one of their bickering matches.    
  
Lance managed a whole five steps before getting zapped this time, which was an admittedly small improvement from the last time they’d tried this. A small one, but an improvement nonetheless. While it wasn’t quite as good as Shiro had been hoping, he tried to take comfort in the fact that they  _ were _ doing better.    
  
“This is pointless!” Lance shouted from below, irritation mounting. “There’s no way I’ll ever be able to do this! Not with  _ Keith _ trying to lead me! He’s got it in for me!”    
  
“If you would just  _ listen _ to me, you’d have no problems! It’s not my fault you won’t trust me!” Keith argued back, and they quickly fell into the bickering match Shiro had tried to avoid.    
  
Behind him, he heard movement and turned to look. The older versions of the arguing pair were smirking at each other, as if sharing on a joke only they knew.    
  
“Wanna show off?” Older Keith quietly asked in his ‘challenge’ voice.    
  
“Boy do I.” Lance grinned, standing up and stretching. “Alrighty kids, let’s show you how the  _ professionals _ do it.” He turned to Hunk. “Hunk, my dear, can I borrow your bandanna for a bit?”    
  
“Uh… sure?” Hunk removed the fabric from his head and handed it over, looking like he was completely unsure if that was the right thing to do or not.    
  
“Thanks. I’ll have it back to you in no time.” And with that, older Lance ambled out of the room. A few seconds later, he walked into the training room below and took Lance’s place. He tied the bandana over his eyes and lifted his face towards the observation area. “Oh honey, I’m ready!” He called in a sing-song voice.    
  
“May I?” Older Keith asked, taking Keith’s place at the intercom. “Now dear, don’t get too carried away. Remember, listen carefully.” He said, tone mocking. “Now, let’s show these kids how it’s done.”    
  
The team watched in slight awe as the older Lance followed every one of his friend’s instructions perfectly, completing the maze in record time without a single misstep as if it was the easiest thing in the world.    
  
“Bet you can’t do it backwards.” Older Kieth challenged, and even from this distance Shiro could see the smirk on the older Lance’s face.    
  
“Oh you’re  _ on _ Mullet.” He accepted the challenge, “I bet I can even do it with my hands behind my back.”    
  
“Not like you need them for walking.” Older Keith goaded. “Or maybe you do. Think you can do it on your hands?”    
  
“Pfft, no problemo mi amigo!” Older Lance casually leaned back into a handstand and proceeded to complete the entire course walking on his hands.    
  
“Okay, that’s enough showing off.” Shiro tried to sound exasperated, when in all honesty he was impressed. Not just at older Lance’s show of athleticism, but also by the fact that they had worked together so  _ well _ . It gave him hope for the future of the team.    
  
He turned to the rest of his paladins. “This just goes to show that it  _ is _ possible, and that you  _ can _ work together. If Lance and Keith can get over themselves enough to do…  _ that _ ,” He vaguely gestured at the window behind him, “Then there’s no reason any of you shouldn’t be able to do it with your eyes  _ open _ .”    
  
\-- -- -- --    
  
“Think we took it too far?” Lance asked Keith as they watched the younger paladins try to complete the maze. He’d joined the others back in the observation deck and sat beside Keith after giving Hunk his bandana back.    
  
Keith shrugged, “Maybe? Not like we didn’t figure it out eventually.”    
  
“Well… I mean, we didn’t.” Lance pointed out. The Castle had been destroyed long before they’d learned to work together as well as they did now. “But I can’t see the harm in making them get along better.”    
  
“Better team cohesion would’ve helped a lot in the earlier battles.” Keith admitted, “But we don’t want to go too far. Inflating their egos too much could make them cocky and prone to mistakes.”    
  
“Pfft, like we weren’t already.” Lance leaned back in his seat, eyes still watching the training below. “Especially us. I forgot how competitive we were.”    
  
“We’re  _ still _ competitive, Lance. Last week we raced to see who could make breakfast the fastest.”    
  
Lance laughed, “Yeah. All that got us was burned food and a destroyed kitchen.”    
  
“Not to mention the lecture Shiro gave us when he saw the mess.”    
  
“What can I tell you, Keith. Some things will just never change.”    
  
Neither of them noticed the amount of attention that Shiro was paying to them. His eyes were trained on the paladins, but his ears were definitely listening in and taking notes.    
  
“Okay, now that we’re all warmed up, lets try combat again.” Shiro announced once Pidge had finally found her way out of the maze with Hunk’s help.    
  
Again, the younger group groaned and grumbled, but followed his instructions, making their way down to the training room, Keith and Lance at their heels.    
  
“Man, I dunno if I can watch that again.” Lance complained quietly. “Like,  _ oof _ .”    
  
“They’re just kids.” Keith reminded him, “They haven’t had a whole lot of training. They’ll get better.”    
  
“Dude, I bet even  _ Ally _ could kick their asses right now. And she’s  _ four _ .”    
  
“And has been training pretty much since she could  _ walk _ .” Keith pointed out, “These guys have been at it for a movement, at most.”    
  
They sat in the corner of the training room, watching the paladins once again get their asses kicked by a level two gladiator, wincing at every connecting blow.    
  
“I can’t watch this.” Lance muttered, hiding his face, seemingly in embarrassment as his younger counterpart was thrown into a wall. “I know you don’t wanna change the future, but can we just show them how it’s done.  _ Please _ ? It’s been  _ forever _ since we’ve had a training room.”    
  
Keith smirked, “You just want to show off again.”    
  
“I wanna stop them from making asses of themselves! Look at them Keith. Pretty sure they don’t know which end is the pointy one.”    
  
“By all means.” Shiro interrupted them, standing over them and looking down, his hands on his hips. “Have a go.” He turned to gesture at the battle area.    
  
After a moment of silent arguing, Keith sighed and relented. “Fine. But if this fucks shit up, it’s on you.” He grumbled, getting to his feet.    
  
“Fine, fine.” Lance sounded put out, but the grin on his face spoke otherwise. “End training sequence!” The gladiator instantly collapsed and disappeared through the floor. “Alright kids,” Lance stepped forward, showing a modicum of intelligence and taking a staff from the training weapons rack. Using his bayard would have just added to the list of questions they weren’t willing to answer.    
  
“My turn.” The look on Lance’s face was one that Keith was familiar with. He was answering another challenge, fully confident that he would win. “Begin training sequence, battle gladiator level ten!” He called to the castle, taking a ready stance as a gladiator dropped from the ceiling.    
  
There was a mutter among the young paladins and Keith let out a sigh and a roll of his eyes. Lance just couldn’t help but show off.    
  
\--- -- -- --    
  
Lance watched in awe as the older version of himself fought the battle droid effortlessly, defeating it in only a few minutes before calling on the next level. As an entire team they had struggled with the  _ second _ level, and now he got to watch an older version of himself take down a level eleven -  _ twelve -  _ on his  _ own _ .    
  
He knew that he would get better in time, but had never really believed he would actually be  _ good _ in combat. He was a people person, not a  _ warrior _ . He had honestly thought he would never amount to much, destined to watch as his team got better and better and left him in their dust.    
  
Add to that, that the older Lance was killing it in  _ close range _ . He was a gunman, a sharpshooter, there was no way he would ever even  _ think _ of succeeding in close combat. Let alone being this baddass about it.    
  
“How… how high do you think he can  _ go _ ?” It seemed that Hunk had had similar thoughts to Lance, if the awe and disbelief in his voice was anything to go by.    
  
“Honestly?” Older Keith answered, barely looking surprised with his friend’s capabilities, “I dunno. We stopped training with the droids a long time ago.”    
  
“Why’s that?” Pidge’s question went completely ignored, so she frowned and tried again, “So what  _ do _ you guys train with?” She tried instead.    
  
The look in older Keith’s eyes told Lance that he knew what she was doing, but he indulged her anyway.    
  
“Each other, mostly. We get together at least a couple of times a deca-phoeb and let off steam.”    
  
“Deca-phoeb?” Lance asked, once again confused by the terms the older versions of himself use, seemingly without realizing it.    
  
“About an earth year.” older Keith answered.    
  
“Why do you use space words?” He asked, curiosity piqued. Keith was from earth, so why did it seem more natural for his older version to speak in space terminology? Just how  _ long _ had he been in space?   
  
“There’s only one planet in the universe that uses Earth measurements.” Keith pointed out, “So I got used to using the galactic standard, I guess.” He sounded like he was trying to sound unsure, but even after only knowing Keith a short time, Lance could see through that.    
  
“Alright, Lance!” older Keith called out, “You’ve had your fun. Let someone else have a go.” He sounded like a parent calling back a wayward child.    
  
“Awww, but  _ Keith _ ,” objected said child, and Lance wondered if he really sounded that petulant, “I was just getting started!” Despite his words, older Lance did look a little winded as he dodged another blow. Talking to Keith didn’t seem to distract him in the slightest, and it only took him another couple of seconds to defeat the gladiator.    
  
“You don’t need any more training. Let the others play for a bit.”    
  
“Fiiiinnneee. End training sequence! Save progress, Leandro one!” Older Lance called out, and the moment the castel’s computer confirmed his instructions, he leaned forward to catch his breath.    
  
After a few seconds, he rejoined the group, looking as smug as the cat that got the canary. “Man, I missed that.”    
  
“Yeah yeah, show off.” Older Keith rolled his eyes, and Lance wondered how long it had taken for their rivalry to become more like a friendship.    
  
“Like you could do better!” Older Lance challenged with a smirk. So it seemed that the rivalry wasn’t  _ completely _ dead.    
  
“You  _ know _ I can.” But older Keith didn’t seem to fall for the obvious jibe. He stayed relaxed in his seated position. “But unlike you, I don’t feel the need to show off.”    
  
“Yeah right.” Older Lance took his place beside his friend and accepted the water pouch offered to him. “You’re just worried that you’ll mess up and have to admit that  _ I’m _ better than  _ you _ .”    
  
“Sure.” Lance watched as older Keith gently patted older Lance’s head. “You just keep believing that.”    
  
\-- -- -- -- --    
  
Before long, it was time for lunch. Freshly showered, Keith took his new place at his old table, a bowl of purple goo in front of him. Lance had taken a quicker shower and snuck off to reprogram their pod, both of them hoping that he wouldn’t be missed for a while.    
  
Lance was known to take long showers, but he could finish quickly when the need arose. Hopefully the younger paladins didn’t know that yet. It would buy them a little time before they started asking about his whereabouts.    
  
“So how far in the future did you say you were from?” Pidge once again tried to trip him with the phrasing of her question. Thankfully, Keith had known her for a  _ long _ time and was familiar with how her brain worked.    
  
“Nope.” He answered her question with a denial of answer. “Try again.” He smirked at her.    
  
“How long… have you been training with Lance?” She tried again.    
  
“Since we left Earth in Blue.” It was kind of amusing how easy she was to rile up. The Pidge from his time had known him long enough to let it slide, but this one was still young and new to their friendship.    
  
“That’s not an answer!” She objected.    
  
“Sure it is.” Keith countered, “Just not the one you’re looking for.”    
  
“You’re starting to sound like Lance.” Ah, now she was trying to insult him. It would’ve worked on his younger self, buack when they first got into space. But that had long ago stopped being an insult.    
  
He simply shrugged, “I’ve spent a lot of time with him.”    
  
“How  _ much _ time?”   
  
“Give it up, Pigeon.” Lance called as he walked into the room, toweling his dry hair. “We’ve all had anti-interrogation training. You’re nothing on the Galra.” He filled a bowl with goo and took his seat beside Keith. They shared a look, silently communicating that Lance’s mission was successfully completed.    
  
“So the Galra have interrogated you?” Pidge turned her question on Lance.    
  
“Nice try, Baby Pidge.” Lance offered her a wink. “No answers til we’re ready.”    
  
“And when will  _ that _ be?” Younger Keith questioned, glaring at them again. Had he always been so  _ grumpy _ ? Watching a younger version of himself made Keith understand why his friends always referred to this time as his ‘emo phase’.    
  
It was kind of embarrassing.    
  
“You show up here, say you’re from the future, and refuse to  _ prove _ it.” He pointed his spoon at them threateningly. “How do we know you’re not some  _ Galra spy _ in disguise!?”    
  
Keith struggled to hide his amusement at how accurate that question was. Technically, he  _ had  _ been a Galra spy. And more often than not he  _ had _ been in disguise.    
  
“Well…  _ technically… _ ” It seemed that Lance’s train of thought was similar to Keith’s, but it was obvious to Keith that his younger self had no idea about his genealogy, and this was definitely not the time or place to clue him in.    
  
“Lance.” He warned.    
  
“Right.” Lance cut himself off and changed the direction of his sentence. “Look, believe us or don’t. We  _ are _ you. And I don’t know for sure if we’re from another reality or another timeline, but we’re not lying to you. Not about this. Trust me, we have no reason to hurt you, in any way.”    
  
“Then  _ prove _ it! Tell us what you know, and how to defeat Zarkon!”    
  
“Well… when a mommy and daddy love each other very much-”    
  
Oh no. Lance wasn’t really about to tell them about  _ Lotor _ was he? The paladins were  _ not _ ready to know about that. It would do nothing more than terrify them at this point. They  _ had _ to believe that they were the ones to defeat Zarkon. That Voltron was the only way of doing it.    
  
“Lance!” He warned again, kicking him under the table for good measure.    
  
“Ow!” Lance sighed, “Alright,  _ fine _ . Jokes aside, how do you want us to prove it? We already told you why we can’t tell you anything. And besides, Pidge’d be the first one to tell you you can’t prove a negative.”    
  
“He’s right…” Pidge piped up, only to be ignored by younger Keith who was still trying to kill them with glares.    
  
“Oh!” Lance turned to Keith, “Show him your knife!”    
  
Keith blinked at him for a moment before realizing what Lance was talking about. His Mamoran Blade, the one his mother left for him, that he had carried with him his whole life. Even after the war, even after the Blade became a humanitarian group, he was never without it.    
  
With a shrug, he reached behind himself to pull the blade from its sheath and handed it across the table to his younger counterpart.    
  
Young Keith took it hesitantly, looking it over with a frown on his face. While Keith had done his best to keep it whole, there was still a decent amount of wear and tear. It had been his primary weapon for years and no matter how careful he’d been, it couldn’t be helped.    
  
After looking it over for a long moment, young Keith pulled his own from behind his back, holding them both and comparing them. It was the same knife, but with only a few differences. Slowly, the knife was handed back and Keith put it away.    
  
“It was moms.” He said, speaking directly to his other self. “She left it behind when she left. It was the only thing she did. Dad tried to hide it, but you found it when you were five. The knife, his gloves, and Mr. Pottus were the only things you kept when you went into state care.”    
  
Younger Keith was staring at him with wide eyes, and Keith knew it was because he hadn’t told anyone except Shiro this for the longest time.    
  
“Who’s Mr. Pottus?” Hunk asked, looking a little confused.    
  
“My… my stuffed toy.” Younger Keith answered. “I lost it..”   
  
“When you were ten and running from the Stevenson house.” Keith knew that younger Kieth probably wasn’t happy with him sharing this information, but he knew that the paladins were trustworthy. Even Lance wouldn’t mock him for this, no matter how frustrated he was with him.   
  
Young Keith swallowed, still seemingly in shock. “Okay. So you know things about me… That… that still doesn’t prove anything.”    
  
“When you were thirteen, you walked in on Shiro and his partner doing things with whipped cream that you will  _ never _ forget.” Okay, so maybe that was pushing it a little  _ too _ far, but Keith knew that that particular story was something that his younger self would  _ never _ tell anyone.    
  
“Wait. What?” Shiro objected, eyes wide.    
  
Yep. Not even Shiro. Hell, Keith wasn’t sure if he had ever told  _ his _ Shiro that he’d seen that.    
  
“Okay, you can stop now!” Young Keith was turning very red, and Keith felt a little bad. Okay, maybe a lot bad. Yep, he’d definitely taken that too far.    
  
“I don’t know  _ things _ about you, Keith,” And wasn’t that just weird, addressing himself by name, “I know  _ everything _ about you. Because I  _ am _ you. Just….”    
  
“Older, cooler, more grizzled?” Lance tried to interject, looking very gleeful about the information he had just learned.    
  
Keith made a mental note to apologize to Shiro if they ever made it back to their time.    
  
“Thank you, Lance.” He said, a little exasperated.    
  
“Any time.”    
  
“So…” Shiro started, also looking a little pink and uncomfortable. But in true Shiro fashion, he pushed passed it and tried to keep things at least semi-professional.    
  
“Sorry.” Keith offered Shiro a small smile.    
  
“Right.” Shiro cleared his throat and turned to younger Keith. “We’ll talk about that later.” He muttered, “But are you convinced?”    
  
“I don’t know.” Young Keith answered unsurely, “Maybe they can read minds or something.”    
  
“Well… We kinda can. I mean, that’s part of being a paladin.” Lance was still grinning, “But man, I did  _ not _ know that story.”    
  
“Not helping, Lance.”    
  
“Alright, alright,” Lance waved his hands in front of him in surrender before turning to the younger paladins. “Anything that happened before space, we can talk about. No spoilers there. If you’re still not convinced, you can ask us anything.”    
  
“What are my siblings' names?” Younger Lance challenged.    
  
“Luis, Marco, Veronica, and Rachel.” Lance answered easily. “C’mon, that was an easy one!”    
  
“What about mine?” Pidge piped up.    
  
“Matt. Next?”    
  
“How many times have I been kicked out of school?” Pidge asked, and the other paladins looked at her in surprise.    
  
That didn’t stop Lance though, the grin was still on his face. “Twice. C’mon Pidge, gimme something hard.”    
  
“What was my mother’s name?” Young Keith asked.    
  
This was somewhat of a trick question. Keith had never been told his mother’s name before he’d met her. He only hoped that Lance remembered that before he gave his quick fire answer.    
  
“You don’t know. Tex never told you, even though you asked nearly every day.” Lance answered and Keith let himself relax. He knew he shouldn’t have worried, Lance knew him almost as well as he knew himself. Better on some days.    
  
The fact that Lance knew his father’s name seemed to surprise younger Keith, and Keith felt a moment of regret when he remembered just how closed off he was at this time.    
  
Younger Lance suddenly switched to spanish, letting out a barrage of rapid questions that were answered just as quickly. Keith only just managed to follow along, glad for all the time he had spent at the McClain farm around Lance’s family. Especially the children, they had spoken  _ very  _ fast when they were excited.    
  
He was surprised when a question was suddenly aimed at him.    
  
“ _ How old were you when you dropped out of the Garrison?” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “A week shy of my seventeenth birthday.” _ He answered easily. Only after the room fell quiet did he realize he had answered in the same language that the question had been posed.    
  
“Since when do you speak spanish?” Pidge asked, curiously.    
  
Keith shrugged, “A while.” He answered, but apparently that wasn’t enough for the others. They all turned to the younger Keith who was looking lost.    
  
“What?”    
  
_ “Can you speak spanish too? _ ” Younger Lance asked, in spanish.    
  
“What?” Young Keith asked with a frown. “I don’t speak spanish!” He objected.    
  
“Live with Lance for long enough and you’ll pick it up.” Keith told him easily.    
  
“Can we all speak spanish in the future?” Hunk asked, not giving them time to answer before asking his next question. “Can you all speak Samoan?”    
  
“No. And no.” Lance answered. Which just seemed to spark more curiosity. “We get paired up for missions a lot!” He tried to half answer, “We’ve been working together for years! Teaching him spanish was just a way to pass the time between systems.”    
  
“I just wanted to know when you were mocking me to your family.” Keith muttered to himself, unfortunately a little louder than he’d intended.    
  
That just caused another round of questions and Keith realized that keeping secrets was harder than he remembered. He’d trusted these people for so long that it was second nature to be open with them now, and even though these weren’t the friends he knew, they were still his friends. His  _ family _ . And remembering the difference was harder than he had expected.    
  
“That’s enough for now.” He said, holding a hand up to silence everyone. “This is exhausting. We’re not answering any more questions.”    
  
“Yeah. Keith still gets grumpy when he’s sleepy.”    
  
“Thank you Lance.” Keith said in a long suffering way.    
  
Their lunch had long ago been finished, and once again he gathered his and Lance’s bowls to rinse and put away. “I’ll be on the observation deck.” He told them, leaving the crowd.    
  
Behind him, he could hear Lance excusing him, reminding them that he still wasn’t the most social of people. He only hoped that Lance would follow his example and get out before he said too much. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is kinda self indulgent tbh. I'm more enjoying writing it than worrying about what people it will appeal to. 
> 
> In saying that, if I start doing anything awful, let me know :)
> 
> Thanks


	3. Discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays everyone! 
> 
> Sorry for the long delay on this. I have no excuse except real life. And laziness. But hey, here is a chapter!! 
> 
> Warning: There is some minor smut in this chapter. Just a little. 
> 
> Also, at the end of the chapter, I have some art of the Pink Hippo like Yelan (that should have been from the last chapter but I hadn't drawn it then xD)

**Pidge**  
  
“Whatchya doing?” Lance’s voice broke the silence in the darkened observation deck. Keith didn’t bother turning around, knowing that his partner would move to join him either way. He kept his eyes on the projection in front of him, not answering Lance with words.   
  
In front of him hovered the image of the shattered remains of a planet. It was cold, lifeless, as it hung in the ink sky, a poor imitation of what it had once been. What it will one day be.   
  
“Ah.” Lance sighed softly, standing shoulder to shoulder with Keith. “Miss it already?” He questioned.   
  
Keith just gave a single nod, eyes still focused on the planet he called home. “Think we’ll ever get back?” He questioned.   
  
“Honestly, no idea.” Lance wasn’t one to lie to him, not about the things that mattered. “But we’ve beat worse odds. The planet _existing_ in our time was a pretty unlikely thing.”   
  
Keith nodded, closing the image with a flick of his wrist and a soft sigh. “If we had our Pidge here…” He began.   
  
“If Pidgey was here, we’d be home already.” Lance agreed with a chuckle. “But she’s not.” He wrapped his arm around Keith’s shoulder and gently led him to the couch, taking the seat beside him. “But we have Baby Pidge.” He reminded him.   
  
“She hates that you call her that.” Keith chuckled, “Didn’t you see the look on her face?”   
  
“Yup. But she’s basically a little sister to me, so teasing her is what I do.” Lance turned in his seat to look at Keith and took his hands. “Hey…” His voice fell quiet, soft, and Keith finally turned to look at him. “We’ll figure it out.” Lance told him with a gentle smile. “We always do.”   
  
“Adapt and overcome.” Keith muttered, moving to lean against Lance who welcomed him into his arms. After a moment of shuffling them around, Lance had Keith pressed against his chest, the half-Galran curled up in his lap.   
  
“As long as we’re together, we can do anything we set our minds to.” Lance said quietly, nudging Keith’s face up to be able to give him a small kiss.   
  
“HOLY QUIZNACK!”   
  
Keith and Lance pulled apart to turn to face the voice. Pidge was staring at them, her mouth agape and her eyes wide. “I _knew_ you guys were hiding something big, but I didn’t think it would be _this_!”   
  
“What’re you talking about, Pidgey?” Lance asked casually.   
  
“This!” She gestured between them, “Cuddling and _kissing_! How the hell did _that_ happen!?”   
  
“Well,” Lance began, “When a mommy and daddy love each other-”  
  
“ _Lance_.” Keith objected with a groan.   
  
“What? One day I _will_ get to use that.”   
  
Keith just rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Pidge. “We’ve been through a lot together. To answer your question, as time went on, it just happened naturally.” Lance snorted in amusement at that and looked like he was going to say more but Keith nudged him. “She doesn’t need all the details.” He cautioned.   
  
“Duh. She’s a _baby_ , Keith. I’m not gonna scar her with _those_ details.”   
  
“I’m fourteen, asshole.” Pidge objected, still looking a little flummoxed, if not a little more red with the implications.   
  
“See,” Lance said to Keith with a smirk, “A baby.”   
  
Keith sighed and dropped his head into his hand. “Why did I marry you?” He questioned, mostly to himself before turning to Pidge. “Pidge. The Keith and Lance of this time… They’re not ready to know about this.” He told her. “Can you keep it on the DL?”   
  
“Since when do you say ‘on the DL’?” Pidge questioned. Keith just gave her a _look_ and she relented. “I dunno. Maybe knowing that you two aren’t always gonna be so antagonistic might help them get over it.” She pointed out. “And it’s about them, they should know.”  
  
Lance did laugh then. “Dude, you tell them about this, and then assuming they _believe_ you, all they’ll do is run in opposite directions. I know I would’ve.”   
  
“Not me.” Keith said with a shrug. “But yeah,” He added, gaze turning back to Pidge. “If you tell them now, it’ll just complicate things. It might even stop this from happening.”  
  
Lance frowned, “You really think so?” He questioned, sounding a little hurt.   
  
“You’re a stubborn asshole.” Keith told him, completely seriously. “If I’d’ve said anything before you were ready to hear it, you’d’ve run for the hills and never looked back, denying that anything could ever happen until your last breath. Just so you’d never have to admit that I was right about something.”   
  
“Yeah… That does sound like me.” Lance admitted with a bit of a chuckle.   
  
“I still think I need to tell them.” Pidge admitted, “I shouldn’t know shit like this _without_ telling them.”  
  
“Language.” Keith scolded, his time with Lance’s family ingraining habits into him that he really didn’t need right now. Pidge gave him a very affronted look, obviously insulted and he just shrugged, not bothering to take it back.  
  
“Alright, fine.” Lance said with a sigh. “I’ll answer you _one_ question about the future, if you promise to not tell anyone about us.”   
  
Keith gave Lance an unimpressed look and made a mental note to yell at him later for this. They had agreed _not_ to tell them anything. Lance saw his face and shrugged, making an expression that said ‘it’s only one thing, what harm could it do?’, to which Keith wanted to remind him that it was _Pidge_ they were talking to.   
  
“What powers your ship?” She questioned.   
  
“A modified Balmera Crystal.” Lance answered simply, going into no further details and Keith had to admit that it was a good answer. It answered her question, without giving her more information than she could’ve got on her own with a little time.   
  
“Modified how?”   
  
“Ah, ah, ah.” Lance shook his head and wagged a finger at her. “The deal was for _one_ question, Pigiruno, and you got your answer.”   
  
“It was an incomplete answer!” She objected, and Lance smirked at her.   
  
“Yup. But it was an _answer_.”   
  
“You’re an asshole!”   
  
“I’m a brother. I learned how to give half answers a _long_ time ago.”   
  
“Fine.” Pidge dropped it, but the look on her face told Keith that she was only dropping it for now. Knowing her, it was just making her more determined to seek out the answers on her own. “I’ll leave you two to your… canoodling.” She turned and started to leave, offering them a wave over her shoulder. “But just so you know, Shiro told us to randomly drop in on you to make sure you’re not up to something. If you don’t want anyone to know about this, save it for the bedroom.” And with that, she was gone.   
  
Keith sighed, dropping his head on Lance’s shoulder, allowing himself to stay there just for a moment before pulling away.   
  
“Hey,” Lance caught Keith as he was getting up, his hand on his cheek. He brought Keith in for another gentle kiss before letting him go. “I promise, we’ll figure out a way home. It’ll be like we never left.”   
  
\-- -- -- -- --   
  
**Shiro** **  
** **  
**After another half an hour in the observation deck, Lance had found himself feeling clingy. Pidge’s warning was still in his ear, so he refrained from being overly touchy with Keith, just in case someone came in. Still, he was so used to casual touches by now, that not being able to have them just made him want them _more_.   
  
So, after fidgeting for twenty minutes, he stood from the couch and grabbed Keith’s hand, pulling him up and towards the door. The moment it opened, he dropped Keith’s hand, but his partner knew him well enough to follow anyway.  
  
They made it back to their room without running into anyone, and as soon as the door was closed, Lance pressed Keith against it. Keith just raised an amused eyebrow at Lance, but didn’t push him away.   
  
“Got told I couldn’t, so now I have to.” Lance explained, and really, that was explanation enough. Without having to be asked, Keith wrapped his arms around Lance’s neck and met him for a heated kiss.   
  
The heat in the kiss told Lance that Keith wanted this as much as he did, so he upped his game and within minutes their shirts were on the floor and they were all but panting into each other’s mouths, hands wandering over bare skin.   
  
Years of experience with each other had taught them just the right places to touch to elicit just the responses they wanted. A featherlight, fleeting touch here, a firmer pinch there, small kisses on the neck. It had them both hot and heavy in a matter of seconds.   
  
A sense of urgency filled them, both knowing that they could be interrupted at any time, by someone they didn’t want to know about this. The edge of forbidden fruit did nothing but add to their desire.   
  
“Fuck.” Keith moaned, throwing his head back against the door as Lance went to town on his neck, “Pants. Off. Now.” He ordered, hands ineffectively pawing at Lance’s belt.   
  
Lance smirked against his skin, “Patience,” He said between one kiss and the next. “Yields,” another rough kiss, almost a bite, “Focus.” He taunted.   
  
“Fuck that.” Keith pushed Lance away, almost roughly guiding him to the bed where he straddled him, hands already working on his own belt. “You _know_ not to do that to my neck if you want patience.” he scolded.   
  
Lance just snickered, smirking up at him as he ran his hands down a naked chest. “Maybe I just wanted you to be rough with me?” He suggested, wiggling his eyebrows in the way he knew would make Keith roll his eyes.   
  
“You could’ve just asked.” Keith muttered, finally pushing his pants down. He climbed far enough off Lance to be able to get to work on his trousers.   
  
“Where’s the fun in that?” Lance questioned, lifting his hips when prompted so Keith could discard the rest of his clothing. When Keith began to make his way back up Lance’s figure, he tutted and shook his head. “Nope. Not yet.” He said, hands pushing Keith’s head back down to where he wanted it.   
  
“Bossy.”   
  
“Damn right I am.”   
  
Keith didn’t answer with words, but he did do what Lance had been asking for. A warm mouth enveloped him and Lance leaned back with a sigh of pleasure. Keith _really_ knew how to use his tongue. The way it lapped at him, circling the head before making its way slowly down his shaft, guiding his dick further down Keith’s throat.   
  
Lance knew he would never get bored of this. Or the soft sounds of satisfaction that it always pulled from Keith. The man loved giving just as much as Lance loved taking. It was like he was born to suck dick.   
  
He spread his legs further, arching back against the bed to press his hips up, delving deeper into that moist cavern of bliss. He let out another, louder, moan and threw his head back, his eyes closed as he allowed himself to enjoy the attention.   
  
He was so distracted, he almost missed the sound of the door opening. Almost. Keith froze between his legs and Lance blinked his eyes open, slowly turning his head to see a wide eyed Shiro staring at the two of them.   
  
“You mind?” He questioned, knowing that this was probably mortifying for Keith. “Kinda busy.”   
  
“I-uh-” Shiro stuttered before clearing his throat. “Kitchen. Now.” He ordered before turning tail and all but fleeing from sight.   
  
Lance sighed in disappointment, dropping back onto the bed. He looked down at Keith, who was staring up at him. Slowly, his lover opened his mouth and let Lance’s dick fall out of it.   
  
“Well. There’s one nightmare become a reality.” He muttered and Lance couldn’t help but laugh.   
  
“Guess that makes up for the whipped cream thing?” He questioned, hinting that he wanted more information on that story.   
  
“Yep. Cool. Thanks for the boner killer.” Ketih muttered, standing and reaching for their discarded clothing. Lance chanced a glance and smirked at the proof that Keith was lying. He couldn’t help but admire the entirely _not_ killed boner that his husband was supporting.   
  
“Yeah yeah,” Keith threw Lance’s pants at him, hitting him squarely in the forehead. “Look all you want, but you’re not getting it for a while.”   
  
“Hey!” Lance objected, grabbing his pants and pulling them on, completely forgoing underwear. “Not my fault Shiro didn’t knock!”  
  
“He _did_ knock.” Keith muttered from inside the shirt he was putting on. “I just ignored it.”   
  
“Well that’s on you.”   
  
“Let’s just go see what he wants.” Keith muttered, already leaving the room.   
  
Lance caught up with him and grabbed his arm, stopping his march forward. He snorted at the unimpressed look, but ignored it in favour of reaching for Keith’s waist long hair. “Might wanna fix that before someone sees it, hmm?” He suggested, already pulling the tie out and starting to run his fingers through it.   
  
Keith batted his hands away and took the hair tie, sorting his hair out while he continued to walk.   
  
He was just finishing the final wrap of his ponytail when they made it to the kitchen to find a very red faced and uncomfortable black paladin waiting for them.   
  
Shiro cleared his throat again, only managing to look at them for half a second before averting his eyes. “First I want to say sorry for- for interrupting-” Shiro said to the kitchen counter and Lance couldn’t help the amusement. Still, he tried to hold his laughter back. “And uh, second, you’re uh, being, uh, safe… right? Condoms and lubrication and all that...”   
  
“Oh my god.” Keith grumbled, throwing his head back with a groan of annoyance. “Shiro. I’m thirty two. And married. I _know_ how sex works. Please, for the love of god, don’t try to give me this talk _again_.” **  
****  
**Lance could no longer keep his amusement to himself and he burst out laughing hard enough to have to double over. “Oh my god this is priceless.” He managed between laughs. “Please, please, keep going!” He urged Shiro a hand vaguely waving in his direction as he cackled.  
  
Keith, he was sure, was giving him a dirty look, but he was too busy laughing to really care.   
  
“No. Please. Don’t.” Keith groaned, “Just… what did you _want_?” He questioned.   
  
“Oh. Right. Pidge and Hunk are trying to break into your ship.” Shiro managed to say, still looking like he would self combust at any moment.   
  
“ _That’s_ what you interrupted us for?” Keith questioned, almost whining. “I knew they were gonna do that! You didn’t need to tell me.”   
  
“They gave up on solving the encryption on the lock and are using more… destructive methods. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to blow up in their faces.”   
  
Keith groaned in frustration and made his way to the wall, where he knew there was an intercom panel. He smacked the button with perhaps more force than necessary, his frustration evident.   
  
“Pidge. Hunk. Stop.” He ordered, “If you break in, the ship will automatically wipe all logs and destroy its power source.” He warned. “You break it, you buy it. And I’m sure as hell not going out to get more scultrite crystals.”   
  
This just set Lance off with more laughing, especially with how annoyed Keith was getting.   
  
“Right. If they blow it up, it’s their own fault.” He said to Shiro. “Can I _please_ get back to having sex now?”   
  
Lance had _just about_ calmed down from his manic giggles, but the look of outright horror on Shiro’s face set him off _again_ and he doubled over once more, tears forming in his eyes.   
  
“Uh - yes?” Shiro squeaked, and Lance felt his arm being yanked as Keith marched them towards the door.   
  
“ _Thank_ you!”   
  
“Oh, Shiro!” Lance called out between giggles, “Don’t tell the others, kay? It would _break_ them.”   
  
He just hoped that Shiro understood what he was getting at, since he didn’t have enough time to properly talk to him before Keith was dragging him down the hallway.   
  
\-- -- -- -- --   
  
Dinner that night was awkward to say the least. Pidge kept throwing looks at both future versions of Keith and Lance, as if trying to tell them something with strengthening levels of frustration. They both completely ignored the looks, almost as if they were used it it.   
  
Shiro, on the other hand, was doing anything and everything he could to _avoid_ looking at either of their time travelling guests. Any time he so much as glanced in their direction, he turned an interesting shade of red and quickly looked away again. Apparently whatever was bothering him went for the younger versions too, though the colour in his face was never quite as extreme when he looked at them.   
  
Keith watched these interactions with confusion and concern, his frown deepening more and more as the meal went on. Conversation was stifled and an air of awkwardness enveloped the table. He couldn’t help but think that something big had happened, and he still didn’t trust the future paladins. _Something_ was going on, and in his experience, that was never a good thing.   
  
“What’s going on?” He finally asked, when his frustration, confusion, and suspicion became too much.   
  
Silence fell across the room as he glared at his future self, waiting for answers.   
  
“Nothing.” The older Keith said with a casual shrug, a gesture that would have been more suited to the man sitting beside him. Keith turned his attention to Lance, glare deepening.   
  
“Bullshit.” He answered, “Shiro looks like he’s about to combust every time he looks at you, and Pidge looks suspicious as hell. What. Happened?”   
  
“Honestly, nothing.” Lance answered this time, an easy smile on his face. “They just found out some personal stuff about us that they didn’t want to know.”   
  
“What _kind_ of stuff!?” Keith’s suspicion was just mounting now. If it wasn’t anything important, than surely they could share it with the rest of the class.   
  
“ _Personal_ stuff.” Lance repeated. “That you don’t want to know.”   
  
That didn’t assuage Keith’s suspicion at _all_. He just deepened his glare and turned his attention to Shiro.   
  
“It’s nothing that would affect the mission.” His brother tried to assure him. “If it was, I would tell you.”   
  
As much as Keith hated this, he knew he could trust Shiro. If it really was something important, he would let them know. Keith was sure of that much at least. But it still didn’t sit right with him. These two were hiding something, and he was going to figure out exactly what it was.  
  
\-- -- -- -- -- -- --   
  
  
BONUS ART:  
Yelan By Intersetlla  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter has been written, but needs to be edited. Things get a bit heavy in that one. 
> 
> But for right now, my kid has decided that it's time to do chores, and who am I to say no to a 14 year old actually wanting to do chores? 
> 
> So I gotta put my laptop down and join her. Woot. 
> 
> Anyway, happy holidays! Enjoy.


	4. The Black Lion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this one hasn't been edited or double checked, so there may be more mistakes than usual.

“So,” Lance was leaning against a crate, watching as Keith took his turn trying to figure out what was wrong with the power source on their pod. “Little Keith’s been following us.” He tilted his head slightly to the left, indicating where the young man was hidden in the shadows.    
  
If Lance hadn’t been around Keith and the Blades as much as he had, he might not have noticed. But the fact that for half the year, every year, he was surrounded by  _ actual _ space ninja’s, had taught him how to notice these things. Not to mention his time in Voltron and the seemingly unending training drills that both Shiro, and later Keith, had insisted on.    
  
So it had only taken him a few minutes at most to realize that they were being followed after lunch. He’d given it a few hours of them working on their ship before bringing it up, wondering how long ‘little’ Keith was going to peer at them from the shadows.    
  
“I know.” His Keith assured him, not bothering to look up from the small scultrite lens he was examining. It looked cracked, and Lance vaguely hoped that they wouldn’t have to go out to find more. From what Keith told him, gathering the crystals was a chore and a half.    
  
“We just gonna ignore him?”    
  
“For now.” Keith finally looked up with his task and sighed. “Broken.” He muttered, throwing the lens on a growing pile. “Looks like we need to find a Weblum.” He said with a shudder. “I’m gonna make Coran go this time.”    
  
Lance snorted at Keith’s bitter tone and pushed himself from the crate. He turned his head a little to spy the smaller Kieth and sighed a little. “You might as well come out.” He told him. “If you’re gonna insist on hanging around, you might as well be useful.” He gathered up the broken lenses and dropped them in an empty box, watching from the corner of his eye as the red paladin approached cautiously.    
  
“Here.” He tried to hand them to him once he was close enough. “Find somewhere to throw these out.” He ordered, earning himself a defiant glare and Keith crossing his arms over his chest.    
  
It seemed Keith didn’t want to let them out of his sight. Well fine. Lance could find something else for him to do. He shrugged and put the box down again before opening another one. “Fine. You can sort through this.” He pushed the box towards Keith. “Anything broken can go into that box,” He gestured to the one with the broken lenses, “And anything worth keeping can go in that one. If you don’t know if it’s broken, just ask.”    
  
“You’re just gonna let me rifle through your things?” Little Keith asked with a frown, leaning over the large box that needed sorting.    
  
“Dude, that stuff is mostly from Earth. It’s not exactly gonna tell you a lot about us that you can’t already figure out.”    
  
With only a little hesitation, as if expecting something to bite him, Keith dutifully got to work. He kept quiet, obviously wanting to listen in on any conversation that the older two would have.    
  
Lance turned his attention from the smaller of the two Keith’s and returned his gaze to his husband, enjoying the view of the man bending over to gather more lenses to look through.    
  
“We’ve lost more than half our lenses.” Keith was telling him, “And all the reserves. Even if we could power her up, we wouldn’t be able to go anywhere fast.” He sighed and straightened up, stretching his back out.    
  
“No luck with the power crystal?” He questioned.    
  
“Deader than Zarkon.”    
  
“Damn.” Lance sighed. “Think we can get another?”    
  
“It took us five deca-phoebs to engineer  _ that _ one. And that was with the Tri-Planet Science Core.” He shook his head, “Pidge and Hunk might be able to reverse engineer it, if we give them a phoeb to work on it. We need to figure out an alternative.”    
  
“Why do you need your ship working anyway?” Younger Keith finally spoke up. “If you figure out a way to get back to your time you can probably just take one of ours.”    
  
Lance shared a look with Keith and shook his head. “Not that easy, I’m afraid.” He answered, “Our best bet is to look for the wormhole that brought us here. Altean pods aren’t designed to go through a natural wormhole. It’d get torn apart. Besides, Pidge would  _ kill _ us if we didn’t bring back the Prelude. She’s an experimental ship.”   
  
“You guys are test pilots?” Little Keith asked with a frown.    
  
“Nah.” Lance smiled at him, “Not usually. But Pidge asked for us specifically.”    
  
“Pretty sure it was just an excuse to get us to come back to Earth early.” Keith added with a chuckle, diving back under the console to fiddle with something. Lance wasn’t going to complain about the show.    
  
“Probably.” He answered eventually, trying not to get  _ too _ distracted by his husband waving his ass in the air.    
  
“So you guys don’t live on Earth?”    
  
Lance pried his eyes from the lovely sight before him to turn back to look at the younger version of his lover. There was a pile of randomly assorted items spread around him, and the box of broken things was a little more full. At least the kid had been keeping up with his task while trying to get answers.    
  
“Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.” Lance decided to throw him a bone.    
  
He was about to move to help him sort through the junk when his Keith appeared at his side. “Here.” He said, dumping the power crystal in Lance’s hands. “Tell me what you get from that.”    
  
Lance nodded and looked down at the small item. It was about the size of a tennis ball. If tennis balls were more of an oblong crystal shape with lots of shards coming off it. He looked at it for a moment, turning it this way and that, lifting it to the light and giving it a very thorough visual inspection.    
  
He frowned as he realized that it wasn’t giving him  _ anything _ . Ever since receiving the marks on his face, he’d been able to sense quintessence. Especially if it was in a large amount like what the crystal usually housed. But the thing in his hand felt like nothing more than glass. Empty.    
  
He closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to ‘feel around’ for something. Anything. But there was nothing. He spread his senses out, noting the two sources near him - both burning bright and strong, a quintessence signature that he would always recognize as Keith.    
  
But there was still nothing from the crystal. “Nothing.” He told Keith eventually, opening his eyes and handing it back. “It’s totally empty.”    
  
“Depleted?” Keith asked, taking the crystal and looking into it. “Didn’t think that could happen so quick.”    
  
“No. Not depleted.” Lance shook his head, “Even when quintessence’s been drained, there’s always still a remnant. Like an echo. But this… it’s like it’s  _ never _ had any.”    
  
“Maybe Coran’ll have an idea.” Keith mused, peering through the translucent crystal.    
  
“How can you tell?” Little Keith asked from behind Lance.   
  
Lance  _ really _ didn’t want to explain it to the red paladin. He had no idea how he would even begin to tell him without giving away everything. He shook his head and shrugged, gesturing to the marks flickering on his cheeks. “Long story.” Is what he settled for in the end. “How’s that coming along?” He asked, gesturing to the box Keith was digging through, hoping to change the subject.    
  
“You have a lot of junk.” Keith grumbled, looking at the MP3 player in his hand. “Why do you have so much junk?”    
  
“First time I went to space, I did it with nothing but the clothes on my back. Never making that mistake again.”    
  
Little Keith shrugged and dug his hand back into the box, grimacing and pulling it out as he found something oily. “What is  _ that _ !?” He questioned, looking more than a little disgusted at the purple, lavender scented, goo clinging to his glove.    
  
“Body lotion.” Older Keith answered, dropping the crystal into the pocket of his hoodie. He joined them and leaned over the box, fishing out the packaging. It had popped open, but was apparently still mostly full. He closed the cap and dropped it in the box for unbroken items. “It’s not gonna hurt you.” He assured Keith, “Or your gloves.”    
  
Lance edged his way passed the two, squeezing through a small gap in the cramped space. He reached into a compartment and sighed. “Auxiliary power must have run out.” He told Keith. “Cold box is warm.” He started fishing out bags. “I’ll get these to Hunk. See what’s salvageable.”    
  
And with that, Lance left the two Keiths alone.    
  
\-- -- -- -- -- -- --    
  
Keith watched the older Lance leave for a moment before turning his attention to the older version of himself. He frowned when he noticed how Keith was gazing towards where the older Lance had left. There was a small smile on his face, one that Keith couldn’t quite place for a long moment. It wasn’t until his older counterpart returned his attention to inside the pod that he realized what it was.    
  
“It never goes away, does it?” He asked quietly, turning he had back to where they had last seen the older Lance.    
  
“What doesn’t?”    
  
“Lance. This- These…” He sighed and gestured to his chest, hoping that the older version of himself understood what he was trying to get at without him having to admit it out loud. It had taken him a long time to figure out what he felt for Lance was actually a crush, and he wasn’t sure if he was quite ready to admit it out loud.    
  
It had always been his hope that it would go away. That the unwanted feelings would just fizzle out and he would be free to truly try to make friends with Lance. As it was, any time they began to get along, he would get flustered. His heart would race and his mouth would go dry. The feeling would hit him roughly around the back of the head and he felt off kilter. Which sparked irritation, then anger, and then he would inevitably take it out on Lance.    
  
Which only fueled their rivalry more, making Lance more and more competitive. Unfortunately, Keith found competitive Lance  _ attractive _ , which would leave him feeling flustered, then angry, and the cycle would deepen.    
  
“Nope.” Older Keith said with a shrug, not seeming bothered by the fact that younger Keith was struggling.    
  
“But-”    
  
“Don’t worry.” The other Keith turned to face him, his smile  _ actually  _ reassuring. “You get used to it. Eventually it stops building and settles down. You’ll figure out how to be his friend eventually.”    
  
“You two are… friends?” Keith asked, watching as his counterpart chuckled and returned to his task.    
  
“He’s my best friend.” He answered easily. “You really think I could live with him if he wasn’t?”    
  
“So you guys really do live together?”    
  
“Yep. Five years.” He shrugged, probably preempting Keith’s next question. “A few years after the war, I wansn’t in a good place.” He admitted, tone taking on a sad tint. “A mission I was leading went bad. Real bad. I fell apart, and Lance… Lance picked up the pieces.”    
  
“Want… to talk about it?” Keith offered, knowing that he was probably the last person someone would want to come to with their feelings, but also knowing that if he could get the older version of himself to let down his guard, he might slip up. Or tell him something useful.    
  
But the other Keith just shook his head, a soft, sad, smile on his face. “Nope. And you don’t want to hear about my problems either.”    
  
“Well… they’re kinda my problems too.”    
  
“Not yet, they’re not.” More things were thrown in the discard box, and they worked together in silence for a short while, before the time traveller spoke up again. “How long have you guys been in space for?” He questioned.    
  
“Dunno… Month or two?”    
  
“Early days.” Older Keith had stopped with what he was doing, looking down at something in his hand. Keith couldn’t identify it, but it must have been broken because it got thrown in the box. “Trying to figure out where you guys are at.” The other him told him, “So we know how much we can talk about.”   
  
“A galra called ‘Ulaz’ broke onto the ship about a couple of days before you guys got here. We followed him to a base and took out a Robeast...”    
  
That seemed to be familiar to the other Keith, and he nodded. “Zarkon tracking you?” He questioned.    
  
“He was. But since you guys got here, he’s not shown up.” Keith frowned, only now having realized this. It was too much to be a coincidence. It must have been their presence that caused it, but how and why, Keith didn’t know. He suddenly felt like he should talk to Shiro about this.    
  
His look of suspicious contemplation seemed to be echoed on his other self’s face. The man was frowning, a look of thought plastered on his features.    
  
“I need to check something.” He said distractedly. “C’mon. Out of the ship.” He ushered Keith out, seemingly unwilling to leave him unsupervised on the Prelude.    
  
\-- -- -- -- -- --    
  
Keith was aware that his younger self was still following him. The boy wasn’t even trying to hide it any more, instead he was keeping pace with him a few feet back. That was fine. It wasn’t like he was going to be able to figure anything out from this.    
  
He waited until he rounded a corner to put his skills to work. It only took him a few seconds and one air vent to lose his young follower. He watched the boy pass and slowly, quietly, made his way along the air ducts to where he needed to be.    
  
It wasn’t the quickest route to take, but Keith eventually made it to the Black Lion’s hanger. He jumped down from the vent and looked up at the giant machine, a grin finding its way to his face as he greeted him in his mind.    
  
He let himself stand there for a moment, basking in the sensation. It had been  _ years _ since he’d last felt a lion in his mind, and the familiar feeling brought overwhelming emotions. He’d missed this. The connection. The understanding. Just… The lions.    
  
While he was glad that the universe no longer needed Voltron, he couldn’t deny the fact that he had been hurt when the lions had left. For months after they flew away, he found himself searching for their presence in his mind, finding only cloying emptiness.    
  
But now Black was blazing brightly in the back of his mind, and just behind Black he could sense the edges of the other lions. Red was strongest of the four, but from the moment he had become the paladin of the black lion, he had been able to sense them all.    
  
He felt a flicker of confusion from the lion as he prodded for Keith’s memories. Probably trying to understand why they were bonded, even though Shiro was still his paladin. Keith didn’t resist. He knew that the lions would understand why they couldn’t tell the others everything, and he could trust them with his secrets.    
  
After a moment, Black lowered his head and opened his mouth, granting Keith access.    
  
He was slow as he boarded, taking in the lion with more attention than he ever had before. He stepped through the short corridors, fingers trailing against the walls as he tried to keep his emotions in check. He felt like crying. From joy. Love. Grief. This reunion was almost more than he could handle.    
  
“Hey boy.” He greeted quietly, slipping into the pilot seat. He reached forward and caressed the controls. “Long time no see.” He felt more prodding in the back of his mind and smiled softly. “You want answers.” He spoke again, nodding. “Okay.”    
  
Closing his eyes, he leaned back and relaxed in his seat. He let out a long, deep breath and allowed himself to fall.    
  
The astral plane was exactly as he remembered. Dark and colourful at the same time. An oppressive feeling of both nothing and everything pressing against him. He forced himself to relax and adapt before opening his eyes.    
  
He was stood in front of Black and he opened his mind up, letting the lion absorb each and every one of his memories until the machine had the full picture. Then, once the lion was satisfied, he aired his own questions.    
  
“Are we blocking Zarkon’s connection to you?” He questioned quietly, using both his voice and mind.    
  
The answer was instantaneous. While he couldn’t hear words from the lions, he had been with them long enough to be able to translate the feelings they sent him.    
  
_ Yes. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ You. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Paladin. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Future. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Mine. _   
  
“ _ I’m _ blocking Zarkon’s connection to you?” He questioned with a frown, not sure how or why. Sure, he had taken over being the paladin of the black lion when it had been needed, but he hadn’t exactly been the machine’s first choice.    
  
And if him being Black’s paladin was blocking Zarkon, why hadn’t Shiro been able to.    
  
_ Connection.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Strong. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ True Paladin. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Realized. _ _   
_ _   
_ “It’s because I’m a fully realized paladin…” Keith said slowly, understanding a little better. He had a stronger connection with Black than Shiro ever had. He’d been able to fully open up to the machine, to give him his all and to hold nothing back. By the end, his connection to Black had been stronger than even his own connection to Red.    
  
“So as long as I’m here, near you, I can keep Zarkon from seeing you?”    
  
He could feel Black’s agreement. And his grief at the mention of his first paladin. He knew that Black would never take Zarkon back, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t mourn for the loss of who he once was. Zarkon had been Black’s first paladin. Before he had been corrupted.    
  
_ Save. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Restore. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Return. _   
  
Keith closed his eyes against Black’s pleas. He felt tears run down his face as the feelings enveloped him. Black wanted so desperately to remove the corruption from Zarkon, to restore him to the man he once was.    
  
Keith wasn’t sure if it was possible, and even if it was, this wasn’t his time to interfere. He had done enough already. Even just being here was changing things.    
  
_ Please. _   
  
With a jolt Keith was returned to the physical plane, having been pushed back by Black, one final plea in his mind.    
  
His feelings. Black’s feelings. They built to an overwhelming level and Keith doubled over, letting the pain, fear, loss, hope, and love, pour through him as sobs wracked his body. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was kinda unplanned. Like... Completely.... Keith was supposed to visit Black, but... Well. The lion told me to do it. 
> 
> Again, please leave comments to let me know what you think.


	5. Rifts

Keith found Lance in the lounge room, watching a movie with the rest of the paladins, the younger Keith included. He ignored the glare sent to him from his counterpart and gained Lance’s attention. He cocked his head to the side to indicate he wanted to talk to him, and his husband dutifully stood and made his way to the door.   
  
Followed by young Keith.    
  
“No.” Keith held his hand up to the red paladin, indicating that he shouldn’t follow. “I need to talk to Lance.”   
  
“Because refusing to let me follow isn’t suspicious at all.”    
  
“I don’t care. I need to talk to Lance.” Keith put his foot down, staring down his younger self, knowing that it wouldn’t deter him. “Don’t make me have to shake you again.” He noticed the way that little Keith glanced in Lance’s direction for a moment, as if he was sure that even if Keith could lose him, Lance wouldn’t.    
  
Jokes on him, Lance had excelled in the Blades training, once Keith had managed to get Kolivan to agree to it.    
  
“He’s just as good at it as I am.” Keith warned his counterpart before turning his attention to the rest of the room - everyone was watching them with interest. “Shiro. Keep him here.” He ordered, using his ‘command’ voice.    
  
Thankfully, Shiro seemed to understand and he gave a nod. “Keith.” He called his brother, and the younger Keith begrudgingly went back to his team.    
  
Once Keith was satisfied, he walked out of the room, knowing that Lance would follow him. He silently led the way to their pod, closing the hatch behind him and feeling safe in the knowledge that nobody could overhear him. He reached into a compartment and grabbed his communicator, activating the signal damping effect that Pidge had installed before giving it to him.    
  
This would mean that in the extremely likely event that the Pidge of this time had left any eavesdropping devices they would be blocked.    
  
Once he was satisfied that they wouldn’t be overheard, he turned to a curious Lance.    
  
“Black wants us to save Zarkon by removing the corruption.” He told him, feeling no need to lead up to it or to be careful about how he said it. Lance valued his honesty.    
  
“What?” Lance asked. “How the hell are we supposed to do that?”   
  
“I don’t know!” Keith sighed, dropping onto the co-pilot’s seat. “But don’t we owe it to Black to try? How often do the lions actually  _ ask _ us to do anything?”    
  
“You said you didn’t want to interfere.” Lance reminded him. Which, fair. Saving Zarkon, or restoring his sanity or whatever it was that the lions wanted, would definitely change things. It would change things in a  _ big _ way.    
  
But… “We’re already changing things.” Keith pointed out with another sigh. “Just by  _ being _ here.”   
  
“Well yeah, we’re changing what the paladins know, but this is universe wide!” Lance pointed out, “Stopping Zarkon this way changes  _ everything _ . Sure, the war would be over, and Honerva probably won’t go mad. More mad.” He corrected, “But they’ve still done a lot of harm. It’s not like the universe is just gonna accept that Zarkon is good now…”    
  
“I know.” Keith muttered, “But think about it. All the really shitty stuff Zarkon has done, was  _ after _ he was corrupted.”   
  
“Are you seriously sympathising with  _ Zarkon _ right now?” Lance asked, eyes wide.    
  
“No!” Keith objected before slumping further in his seat. “Maybe. I dunno. Black got all up in my head.” He muttered.    
  
Lance let out a slow breath and took his seat. At least he was taking Keith seriously and listening. It had taken them a long time to be able to have conversations like this without one of them storming off. It had been a lot of work, but it had been worth it.    
  
“Look. Even if I agreed with you - which for the record, I don’t. Un-corrupting Zarkon is a bad idea. - We would have no idea how to do it, or if it could even be done.”    
  
“Honerva.” Keith pointed out, lifting his head to look at his partner. “Honerva changed.”    
  
“Yeah. Five minutes after destroying  _ everything in existence _ .” Lance added dryly. “I’m not entirely sure that was a change, buddy.”    
  
Keith nodded in agreement. It wasn’t like they had had long to talk to her after her apparent change of heart.    
  
“And besides that, it was Allura who changed her mind.” Lance continued, “Even if she  _ was _ cleansed, we have no idea how to do it, and I very much doubt that our racist little princess will help us with this.”    
  
Keith snorted in amused agreement. He remembered just how little Allura had thought of the galra as a whole. It had taken weeks for her to accept him for who he was, and he was only half galra. Even when she had finally accepted that not all galra were bad, there was nothing that could have changed her views on Zarkon himself. The betrayal just ran too deep.    
  
“What about Oriande?” Keith asked.   
  
“What about it?”    
  
“Did you learn anything there that could help?”    
  
“Not really. Nothing I can think of. And I don’t think Allura is ready to know that it’s real right now. Even if we do take her there, there’s no guarantee that Zarkon or Honerva won't follow.” Lance sighed, relaxing in his own seat. “Look, I’m not discounting the idea. Not right away. But I think we should seriously think about this before going for it.”   
  
Keith nodded in agreement, glad that Lance was open to the idea. He wasn’t even sure of it himself, he was just telling him what Black had asked of him.    
  
“So… why’d you go see Black anyway?” Lance asked after a long silence.    
  
“Keith was telling me that they’ve just met Ulaz, and that Zarkon seemed to stop tracking them the minute we arrived.” Keith closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. It had been a long day. “Made me wonder why.”   
  
“Black let you in?”    
  
“Mhmm. Turns out, the paladin bond is timeless. Or something.” He shrugged. “Black recognised me as his paladin, but didn’t know  _ why _ . I let him see my memories.” He gave a soft smile, “He called me his “true” paladin. Apparently a fully realized paladin bond cancels out Zarkon’s?” He shrugged. “I don’t get it, to be honest. Black tried to explain it…”    
  
“So… Red would recognise me?” There was a hint of cautious hope there, and Keith nodded with a soft smile, remembering how it felt to reconnect with his lion.    
  
“Wanna go see her?” He suggested, watching as Lance’s face lit up.   
  
\-- -- -- -- -- -- --    
  
“What are you doing to my lion?” An angry voice joined them as they sat in the cockpit of the red lion. Lance quickly got out of the pilot’s seat and turned to face the younger Keith.    
  
“Nothin’....” Lance replied and Keith rolled his eyes with a sigh.    
  
“Way to sound suspicious, Lance.” He scolded before turning back to his younger counterpart. “After the war, the Lions left.” He told him simply, knowing that this probably wasn’t something he should be telling him. “Voltron wasn’t needed any more. It’s been a long time and... “ He shrugged, “We missed them.”    
  
Little Keith eyed them suspiciously, hand still by his blade. “Get out.” He ordered.    
  
Lance hesitated, and Keith understood why. They’d only been with Red for maybe ten minutes, and it wasn’t nearly enough time to re-establish a bond, but as always, he was willing to follow Keith’s lead. So when Keith stepped away from the controls, Lance followed.    
  
They made it to the airlock before noticing the problem. “Uh…” Keith stepped forward to gently touch Red’s firmly closed jaw. “Gonna let us go?” He questioned. “Please? Keith is kinda mad we’re here…”    
  
The jaws remained shut.    
  
“The hell did you do to my lion!?” Keith roared, pulling his knife now and facing them.    
  
“Nothing!” Lance held his hands up in front of him in a surrender position, and Keith found himself going for his own blade - just in case. “Honestly! We were just bonding with her, and now she won’t let us-” He cut himself off with a grimace. “No need to shout!” He scolded the lion.    
  
Obviously she had responded to the events happening in her mouth.    
  
This seemed to just agitate the young Ketih even more, and Keith stepped between his younger self and his partner. “Lance.” He warned, hoping that Lance would understand what Keith was saying. ‘Get your lion under control and get us out of here before I have to use this’.    
  
He felt Lance nod behind him, and then go completely still, concentrating on controlling his lion remotely. Maybe even pleading with her. Keith scrambled for his faded connection with her, to try to join in on the request, but he was unable to.    
  
“I can’t feel her!” Little Keith was becoming frantic now, the hand holding his blade shaking. “What did you  _ do!” _   
  
Shit.    
  
“We’re fully realized Paladins.” Keith explained slowly, “Our bonds with our lions are stronger than yours, and blocks you out. We’re trying to fix that,” He threw that last part behind his shoulder to Lance, who nodded, eyes still closed. “We don’t want to get in your way, and we’re not here to steal your lion.” Which would have been the conclusion that he would have come up with had their positions been reversed.    
  
Behind him, Lance was shaking. Before he could check on his husband, there was a roar from Red and her jaw slowly opened. He turned back to little Keith, who had a look of relief on his face. Obviously his connection to his lion was restored.    
  
“See.” Keith spoke in the reassuring tone he’d learned in order to talk to Lance’s younger family members. “Ask Red, if you don’t believe us.”    
  
Younger Keith held his glare for a moment longer before closing his eyes, communicating with his lion. It looked like he was concentrating hard, and Keith remembered how difficult it had been in the beginning.    
  


It reminded him just how new to this they all were.    
  
After a long moment, younger Keith opened his eyes and gave a tight nod. He gestured to the airlock, obviously wanting them  _ out _ of his lion. Which. Fair. With a nod, Lance and Keith stepped out of the machine, neither fully turning their backs to Keith, nor putting their hands down.    
  
“I don’t want to see either of you in here again.” He warned them. “Stay the hell away from my lion.”    
  
“Noted.” Lance muttered, voice slightly strained. Keith also nodded in agreement and allowed his younger self to lead them out of the hanger.    
  
\-- -- -- -- --    
  
“Holy quiznack Hunk! That smells amazing!” Lance excitedly grinned up at his friend as he served them dinner. “How did you get goo to smell so good!?” He questioned.    
  
“I didn’t.” Hunk put plates on the table and removed the lids to show them the food. The  _ Earth _ food. There were pizza rolls, sausages, bacon,  _ garlic knots _ . A wide arrangement of party food and Lance felt his mouth watering as he looked up at Hunk, wanting to know what was going on.    
  
The chef grinned at him. “The Lance from the future gave me a whole heap of ingredients from Earth!” He excitedly told the paladins. “Said their fridge broke and they needed to use the stuff they’d been keeping in there!”    
  
Lance looked back at the food on the table. “So this is real!? Like, really from  _ Earth?” _   
  
“Yep.” The older Lance grinned at him as he and the older Keith walked into the room. “Bonafide Earth cuisine! There’s even desert.” He waggled his eyebrows at his younger self to the amusement of everyone at the table.    
  
“Don’t eat it!” Keith demanded, glaring at the food.    
  
“Not this again.” Lance sighed, “C’mon Keith. You saw how badass they are. If they wanted us dead, we’d already be dead. They’re not gonna  _ poison _ us.”    
  
“So why is  _ he _ not eating it?”    
  
When his younger self gestured to Keith’s bowl of purple goo, Keith raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “Honestly, I prefer the goo.”    
  
“ _ Nobody _ prefers goo!”    
  
Snorting in amusement, Older Keith stood and moved to the red paladin, offering him a bite. “Try it.” He offered.   
  
“Didn’t Allura say it’s bad for humans?” Hunk asked, voice trembling slightly in worry.    
  
“It is.” Keith agreed, “But for some reason I can handle it.” He took a spoon full to demonstrate. “No ill effects. I spent a few years where this was all that was available.”    
  
Younger Keith seemed hesitant as he stared at the bowl offered to him. “What’s it made of?” He questioned, cautiously.    
  
The older Lance snorted in amusement. “Trust me buddy, you don’t  _ want _ to know. No idea how Keith eats that stuff, but he seems to like it. Mami actually gets it in special for christmas.”    
  
“Your mom gets food in specially for Keith?” Hunk asked, eyes slightly wide in surprise, as if he hadn’t been expecting Keith to be close enough to Lance’s mother that she would do that.    
  
“I live with Lance.” Keith reminded Hunk, “Sometimes that’s in Cuba.” He shrugged, wiggling the bowl in front of Keith again.    
  
“Fine.” The boy snatched the bowl and spoon and tried a mouth full. Everybody watched in silence to gauge his reaction. He didn’t seem to know what to make of it right away, his brows pinched as he considered it. After swallowing, he hesitantly tried another spoon.    
  
“Good. Right?” Keith grinned as his younger counterpart reluctantly nodded. Keith left him with the bowl and went to get himself another.    
  
“Doesn’t mean I’m gonna miss out on Earth food though.” The red paladin muttered, putting the bowl aside.   
  
“Now that Keith’s tried it and said he likes it,” Little Lance turned to the older pair. “What’s it made of?” He questioned.    
  
“You  _ don’t _ want to know.” Older Keith repeated Lance’s earlier words. “Trust me.” He sat back down with his own bowl of goo.    
  
The others joined them soon after, and together the paladins enjoyed their first Earth meal in months. Keith and Lance watched from their side of the table as the small family ate and laughed.    
  
\-- -- -- -- -- --    
  
After several days, Keith and Lance had more or less settled into their temporary home. The others seemed to be trusting of them, or most of them at least. The younger Keith seemed to be doing his best to stay suspicious, stubbornly refusing to let his guard down for more than a few minutes.    
  
Still, with the others trusting them, they had been given more things to do around the Castle. From helping Coran with the chores to taking on midnight shifts on the bridge.    
  
Even though there had been no sign of Zarkon, Allura was still paranoid that they were being tracked, and was thankful for the fact that there were now more people who could split shifts to keep a lookout.    
  
At first, someone had been with them at all times. Depending on the day and the time of night, depended on who was there. But tonight, for the first time in the two and a half weeks since they arrived, Keith and Lance were left alone to watch over the sleeping Castle.    
  
They spent their time doing their usual. Word games that usually ended up in bickering, Lance quizzing Keith on spanish, Keith quizzing Lance on galra. Which always ended up with more friendly bickering. Eventually, they settled down into doing their own thing. Lance was watching a local broadcast of Bi-Boh-Bii’s sitcom, and Keith was steadily making his way through the downloaded library on his phone.    
  
They’d been alone for several hours, their shift almost over when the Castle suddenly shuddered and rocked like it had been hit by something.    
  
Instantly they were both alert, their activities forgotten as they jumped for the controls. Keith ran a scan to figure out what was going on.    
  
“Weblum!” He warned, throwing the image on the screen.    
  
“Activating Particle Barrier.” Lance jumped to action. “Man the defenses.” He ordered, Keith rushing to obey.    
  
“We can’t withstand a direct hit.” Keith warned him, and Lance nodded, rushing to the controls.   
  
He stood in the center where Allura normally controlled the ship. He held his hands out, relieved when the pylons rose from the floor. He had been half worried that this would be the one piece of Altean tech that wouldn’t respond to him.    
  
Thankfully, it did, and he began to move the ship out of the way. “Initiating evasive maneuvers.” He called out as he did.   
  
“We’re not gonna lose it.” Keith warned, keeping an eye on the console, ready to fire back but unwilling. “Incoming.” He warned as the Weblum opened its mouth. Lance barely got out of the way in time - the shot grazing one of the support towers. “We need to get out of here.”    
  
Lance nodded, taking a breath and hoping that the Castle would keep responding to him. “Opening a wormhole.” He said, thankful that almost all Altean tech worked the same, and more than a little greatful that Coran had finally been able to teach him how to  _ read _ .    
  
A wormhole opened in front of them, and Lance threw the ship through it, just as everyone else piled into the bridge.    
  
“What’s going on!?” Allura demanded, stopping short as she watched Lance pilot them through a wormhole.    
  
The moment they were inside it, Lance collapsed, his knees giving way. Keith was there in a second, clutching Lance to stop him from falling further. “Lance?”   
  
“‘M good. Castle’s a bit bigger than Prelude.” He muttered, leaning heavily against his partner and closing his eyes for just a moment, giving himself a second to catch his breath. Everybody watched the screen as the Castle exited the wormhole.   
  
The screens showed what was outside - a broken husk of a planet surrounded by shattered rocks.    
  
“What happened?” Pidge asked, eyes locked on the sight before her.    
  
“Weblum.” Keith answered, “Came out of nowhere. Must’ve come through a wormhole.” He helped Lance to his feet and guided him to sit on the red paladin chair.    
  
“Sorry for stealing your ship, Princess.” Lance said to Allura. “Had to move quick. Don’t think even the Castle defenses can stand up to a hit from a Weblum.”    
  
Cautiously, Allura stepped forward to her usual station and regarded Lance for a long moment. “How are you able to control the Castle?” She asked.    
  
“Yeah, I thought only Alteans could…” Hunk added from where he had taken his seat.    
  
Lance just gestured to his marks, “Sometimes Altean tech thinks I’m Altean.” He told them. “Figured out how to use a Teladuv a few years back.” He groaned and leaned back in his seat, rubbing at his pounding head. “Never had to move something this big though.”    
  
“You need a nap.” Keith muttered, once again helping Lance to his feet.    
  
“Where are we?” Shiro asked, eyeing the dead planet.    
  
“First safe place I could think of.” Lance leaned heavily on Keith, who was purposefully not looking at the screen.    
  
“Weblums eat dead planets, so to escape from one, you brought us to  _ another _ dead planet?” Allura asked, face unreadable.    
  
“This planet has been dead for ten thousand years.” Keith told them, voice quiet. “No Weblum has ever come here.”   
  
“What planet is it?” Pidge asked, turning her attention to the time travellers.    
  
“Daibazaal.” Lance answered quietly, “Home planet of the Galra.” His headache was starting to recede and he offered Keith a smile to let him know he was really okay. “The first casualty in the Ten Thousand Year War. This… is where it all began.”   
  
“The Galra homeworld was destroyed too?” Shiro asked, eyes trained on the floating rock.   
  
“Daibazaal was destroyed first.” Keith told them, barely masking the sorrow in his voice. Lance grimaced and put a reassuring hand on Keith’s shoulder. After the war, when the planet had been restored, Keith had settled there with his mother. For the last decade, he had called Daibazaal his home. Lance was regretting his choice of safe location.   
  
“After King Alfor destroyed it, Zarkon retaliated, destroying Altea in turn. That’s what started the war.” Keith continued, lightly leaning into Lance’s touch.    
  
“ _ Alfor _ destroyed it!?” Pidge asked in shock.    
  
“His actions were justified.” Allura answered darkly. “And unlike Zarkon, my father evacuated Daibazaal  _ first _ .”    
  
Lance nodded in agreement. “Yeah. But Zarkon wasn’t exactly…”   
  
“Sane?” Keith suggested and Lance nodded, snorting in amusement.    
  
“You could say that.” He watched as Keith slowly stepped forward, eyes never leaving the husk of a planet. “We could stop it all now.” He said quietly, reaching for a console. He pressed a few buttons and brought up a scan of the planet. The sensors automatically locked on to what was left of the rift into the quintessence field. “Finish what Alfor started.” He turned to look at Lance, ignoring everyone else in the room. “Stop Lotor and Honerva from ever using it again.”    
  
Lance hesitated. He agreed with Keith, but Keith had made good points as to why they shouldn’t interfere. Why they had to tread lightly. But he was right about this too. If they got rid of the rift, Honerva could never put every reality in danger. Lotor wouldn’t be able to access the pure quintessence. It could stop a lot of things, but it could also make things worse.    
  
“What about the colony?” He asked, “Take away Lotor’s source of power, and he’ll double down on them. He’ll kill them all.”    
  
“Then we go get them.”    
  
“They worshiped him. No way they’ll agree to come with us.”    
  
Hunk’s question of ‘Who’s Lotor’ and Pidge’s question of ‘What colony’ were completely ignored by both time travellers, who were staring each other down as they calmly discussed things. It was almost like they were the only people in the room.    
  
“We’ll figure it out. With Allura and Coran with us, we might be able to convince them.” Keith continued.    
  
“Okay, say that’s true. We can get them out of there, bring them all aboard the Castle and everyone’s happy and safe.  _ How _ would we seal it?” He questioned.    
  
Keith paused for a moment, turning his attention back to the readings on the console. He stayed quiet, contemplating, and Lance stepped forward.    
  
“Last time, we needed an implosion the size of a supermassive black hole. And that only  _ mostly _ sealed it.” He pointed out to Keith. “We don’t have that kind of power right now.”    
  
Keith’s gaze flicked up to the Crystal above Allura, but he nodded, closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. “Not out here we don’t.” He opened his eyes and looked at Lance defiantly. “But inside-”   
  
“No.” Lance cut him off straight away. “No. No. No! Not happening! You  _ know _ what pure quintessence does to a person.”    
  
“We have to try.” Keith objected. “This will stop Honerva before she even gets started! Lotor won’t die in there, and she’ll never go looking!”    
  
“We’ll figure out another way to do that.” He assured his partner, his hands on his shoulders. “If you really want to step in and change things, we can! But not like this. We’re  _ not _ going in there.”   
  
“We don’t have to.” Keith told him, eyes lighting up with an idea. “The quintessence won’t affect the lions right away.” Before Lance could stop him, Keith closed his eyes and his head dropped, his knees giving way. Lance caught him before he hit the ground.    
  
“No!” He shouted, vaguely hearing Coran warn that the Black Lion was leaving his hanger. “Don’t be an idiot!” He shook Keith but got no response.    
  
With a small growl, Lance sat down, Keith still cradled to his chest. “Always doing shit without thinking it through.” He muttered, still ignoring everybody else as he closed his eyes and let his own head drop.    
  
\-- -- -- -- --    
  
Remote piloting the lions wasn’t something they had actually done often. Only once or twice during the war, and a handful of times after - before the lions left. It was still a strange feeling, to have his body seemingly replaced with that of a giant robotic lion, but Lance ignored his discomfort.    
  
Shooting from his hanger he chased after Keith, glad that Red was significantly faster than Black. It didn’t take him long to catch up and pass him. He turned to face the Black Lion and stopped in his way.    
  
“Keith!” He called, “Stop and  _ think! _ ” He ordered.    
  
“I can do this Lance.” Keith reassured him, activating the Black lion’s ability to phase, passing right through Red.   
  
“Yeah, you probably can!” Lance agreed, moving to catch up and re-take his position in front of his lover’s lion. “But what comes after?” He questioned. “And just because we’re not physically in the lions, doesn’t mean we’re not connected!” He reminded him. “The Paladin Bond is  _ made _ from quintessence! That’s how we can do this!”    
  
Again, the Black lion phased through Red, and this time, Lance caught it in his jaws, not wanting Keith to have the opportunity to do it again before he could talk some sense into him.    
  
“There’s no telling what effect this will have on you! Don’t repeat the mistakes of the past!”   
  
“That won’t happen this time!”   
  
“You don’t know that! The risks are too great. Daibazaal doesn’t need another corrupt emperor!” With effort, Lance began to tow the struggling Black lion back towards the Castle. “And even if it  _ did _ work, even if you sealed the rift and didn’t get affected, what about Voltron? If you seal it from the inside, you’ll leave the Lion behind!”    
  
That seemed to register with Keith and Black stopped struggling for a moment. Lance was getting through to him. “C’mon team leader,  _ think _ before you act.” Red was getting closer to the Castle, the Black lion still held in her jaw. “Daibazaal isn’t going anywhere. We can think of another way.”    
  
There was silence for a long moment before Keith spoke again, his voice quiet. “What if we can’t?” He questioned, “What if everything happens again? All those realities. All those people. Could you live with yourself if we do nothing and it all happens again?”    
  
“It  _ wont _ .” Lance assured him. “You’ve decided that we’re going to interfere, so we’re  _ going _ to interfere. But not like this. This is too risky.”    
  
“Lance…”   
  
“I’m your Red Paladin.” Lance said, voice strong and steady. “I’m here to pull you back when you go too far. To be your voice of reason. I’m here to hold you up, support you, and not let you lead us to ruin by being a damn hothead! I’m your right hand man, and I need you to trust me.”    
  
“I do.”    
  
“Then let’s go back to the Castle and figure this out.”    
  
\-- -- -- -- -- --    
  
Lance blinked his eyes open, ignoring the strange feeling of suddenly being back in his body. He lifted his head to see all the young paladins looking at him with various expressions. “Uh. Hi guys.” He greeted.    
  
Keith groaned in his grip and drew Lance’s attention to him. The minute the man opened his eyes, Lance punched him in the arm. “What have we said about rushing in without  _ thinking _ !?” He questioned, letting his anger and frustration show. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed!” He hit him again and Keith groaned, pulling out of Lance’s grip.    
  
“Didn’t we already figure out that going in there makes people immortal?” He questioned rhetorically, sitting up and rubbing his arm.    
  
“What the hell is going on!”    
  
They looked up again to the others in the room before sharing a look.    
  
“Well. Looks like my Black paladin has decided to interfere after all.” Lance told them.    
  
“You owe us a  _ lot _ of answers.” The younger Keith growled and the two older paladins nodded.    
  
“Let’s go sit somewhere more comfortable.” Keith muttered, groaning as he stood. He grimaced and rubbed his back as he stretched. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have one more chapter already written, but I've kinda hit a slump motivation wise. Inspiration is still there, but it's summer and with summer comes heat, and with heat comes a completely incapacitated Stella. So... Yeah. I do nothing but sleep and play video games at the moment. My mental illness is also kicking my ass right now, so I'm not gonna stress about not being able to write. Writing is hard x.x 
> 
> Hopefully I'll find the ability to write more soon, but here's a chapter anyway. The next one will be posted eventually, and it is quite short. And heavy. So heads up on that.


	6. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short but impactful chapter ahead.

“We’ll tell you what we can.” Lance said as everybody piled into the lounge room. He and Keith stood while everybody else took a seat. “Answer some of your questions but… Until Keith and I have had a conversation,” He glared at his husband as he spoke, making it clear that they were  _ going _ to have that discussion, “about how much we want to interfere, we’re not going to tell you everything.”    
  
He turned his attention back to the gathered group. They were all there. All five paladins, Allura, Coran. Even the space mice. They were all looking at him with expectant expressions.    
  
“Anything personal is no-go.” He added. “Anything that happened after the war is a no-go. There will be a lot of details we won't go into.” He sent another glare to Keith, warning him that he was in control of this conversation. It was his job to take over when Keith couldn’t lead, and that was what he was doing.    
  
He received a small nod, and Keith took a seat at the edge of the couch.    
  
“How did Honerva survive?” Allura asked first.    
  
“Same way as Zarkon.” Lance answered, “Corrupted by pure quintessence and denied the ability to die of old age.”    
  
“How does  _ that _ work?” Younger Lance asked.    
  
“Quintessence is life force.” Lance answered him. “All living things produce it, and all living things need it to survive. Eventually a beings’ quintessence runs out, and the creature dies a natural death. Zarkon and Honerva were infused with pure quintessence, and somehow it was able to self-replicate. They would never naturally run out.”   
  
“So Zarkon can’t die?” Hunk asked.    
  
“He and Honerva are immune to all disease, and will never die of old age. But they  _ can _ be killed.”   
  
“Can’t get sick, never get old. They could bottle that up and make a fortune!” Lance said, obviously trying to lighten the mood a little, “Too bad they’re too evil to want to make people’s lives better.”    
  
“They weren’t always evil.” Keith said quietly. He was sitting leaning forward, arms braced on his legs and head down. His eyes were trained on the floor, and he was speaking with barely any volume. “Once, a long time ago, they were good people.” He didn’t see the looks of skepticism that the humans in the room sent him, so he continued. “But pure quintessence… it affects the mind. Forces you to focus on one thing, and one thing only. On strong emotions. It rewires your personality around that sole obsession. For Zarkon, it was revenge. Against Afor, Altea, and then the rest of the universe. For Honerva it was her devotion to Zarkon.”    
  
“Who exactly  _ is _ Honerva? You talk as if she’s more of a threat than Zarkon!” Young Keith asked.    
  
“She’s Zarkon’s wife.” Lance answered, taking control of the conversation again. “As long as she never remembers that, we can deal with her. But we have to deal with her _ before _ we deal with Zarkon. If he dies before she does, she’ll remember who she is.”   
  
“And that’s bad?” Pidge asked.    
  
“Her focus is her devotion to Zarkon. When Zarkon died, she started to obsess over their son, and she remembered who she was. When he died she turned against the Galra, and the universe as a whole. She sacrificed countless lives to achieve her goal.”    
  
“What was her goal?” Shiro asked, paying most of his attention to Lance, but occasionally glancing at Keith, who still hadn’t lifted his head.    
  
“To use the rift on Daibazaal to pierce through the barriers between realities and find one where her family was whole.” Lance answered, his eyes flicking to his husband for a moment.    
  
“That.. doesn’t sound that evil.” Hunk pointed out.    
  
“Every reality she pierced through was destroyed.” Keith answered. “Thousands of them.” He finally lifted his eyes to look at the others, his expression closed off and cold. “Every one of those realities collapsed into nothingness, and everything and everyone within them stopped existing. And when she found out that her goal was unachievable, she began to destroy them  _ all _ .”   
  
The others in the room were looking at Keith and Lance with wide, terrified eyes. “How-how did you stop her?” Pidge asked, sounding small.    
  
“We didn’t.” Lance told her, gaining her attention back. “We followed her into the rift, into the space between realities. We followed her to the center of time and reality itself and couldn’t do  _ anything _ to stop her. Eventually, we were all that was left in the universe. In  _ any _ universe.”    
  
“But… you had to have stopped her.” Young Lance said, voice shaky. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be here…”    
  
“Allura managed to talk her down.” Lance told them, ignoring the pang of hurt that always accompanied the memories. “But it was too late. There was one strand, one thread of reality left, and it was fading. There was nothing we could do to stop it.”    
  
“In the end…” Keith spoke again, “Honerva realized what she had done. She came back to herself, remembered who she was  _ before _ she was corrupted. She wanted to stop the end, but she wasn’t strong enough. Not… Not on her own.”    
  
“Honerva was Altean.” Lance explained, “A skilled alchemist. She had the knowledge, but she was too weak to use it. She… needed a boost.” His fingers found their way to his cheeks, the memories hitting him hard.    
  
It had been a long time, and he had moved on, processed his grief for Allura. But that didn’t make it any easier to talk about. Especially not  _ to _ Allura.   
  
“Allura gave her the boost she needed.” Keith spoke for him, knowing that Lance didn’t have the emotional strength to tell this part of the story. “She left some of her quintessence with Lance and gave the rest to Honerva.”    
  
“All of it?” Shiro asked.   
  
Silently, Lance nodded.    
  
“But.. you said that everyone needs quintessence to live.” Hunk said slowly, and Lance just nodded again.    
  
“Not everybody survives a war.” Keith said quietly. “We lost Allura, but her sacrifice restored reality.” He looked directly at the princess. She was quiet, eyes wide and hand over her mouth. She looked terrified. “Allura gave her life so that every other being in the multiverse could live. She brought back thousands of realities. Countless lives. She gave us back Altea and Daibazaal, and everybody who died there.”    
  
“Allura was our hero.” Lance spoke with a thick voice. “Her sacrifice has never, and will never be forgotten.”    
  
“I want to stop it before it gets that far.” Keith said, “I want to close the rift Honerva used to travel between realities before she even thinks to do it.” He turned his attention directly to Allura. “Allura was my friend. My sister. And my Blue Paladin. She died under my command and there’s nothing I can ever do to save her or bring her back. I miss her every day. But I  _ can _ protect you. I  _ will _ make sure that you  _ never _ have to make that sacrifice.”   
  
“Forewarned is forearmed.” Shiro said, “We can help you. You don’t have to do this alone.”    
  
Keith turned his attention to Shiro and nodded with a small smile. “Thank you.”    
  
The room went quiet for a long moment, everybody absorbing the information they were just given. Coran had his arm wrapped around Allura’s shoulders in an effort to comfort both of them. The princess was shaking, trembling under his arm as she leaned against him.    
  
“I still have some questions.” Younger Keith said quietly, breaking the silence. “How did you become the black paladin?” He asked Keith.    
  
“That’s a story for another time.” Keith told him.    
  
“How did you fly your lion when you weren’t  _ in _ it?” Pidge asked, curiosity evident in her voice. She kept glancing at Allura, as if unsure if she could join in the half hug with Coran.    
  
“We’re fully realized paladins.” Lance answered for her. “Remote piloting is something that can only be done when you’re fully bonded with your lion. It took us decaphoebs to get there. And even now it’s not easy.”    
  
“Can you teach us?” She asked, “You want to change things, and we want to help. If you teach us how to be better paladins, we’ll be more likely to succeed.”    
  
Lance and Keith shared a look, then a nod. “We’ll teach you what we can.” Keith answered, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “But it requires complete trust. Trust in your lions, and trust in each other. You need to get your lions to trust you.”    
  
“You need to work on your teamwork.” Lance added. “If you can’t even get through your group training, there’s no way you can become fully realized.” He looked around, making eye contact with everyone in the room, eyes landing on the younger Keith last. “To become fully realized, there can’t be  _ any _ secrets between the paladins.” He warned. “Every thought, every feeling, has to be freely shared. No holding back.”    
  
“That’s a big ask.” Shiro said.    
  
“You’ll get there. In time.” Keith told him, full of confidence. “Patience yields focus.” He stood and joined Lance, turning to address the younger group. “No matter what obstacle, if you work together you can get through it. Adapt and overcome.”    
  
“Adapt and overcome.” Lance repeated, smiling at his lover. He hadn’t forgotten the anger and fear from earlier, but he knew that together they would get through it. They were in for a long and hard conversation once they were alone, but they would get through it. And now, as always, they stood together, united in a common goal.    
  
“We’ll start training tomorrow.” Keith spoke, falling back into his role as leader. “We’ll teach you everything we can, and work together to come up with a solution.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this work is being put on semi-hiatus. One of my other fics decided to smack me around the head with inspiration, so I'm gonna work on that for a while. It may take a while to continue with this fic. But I WIILL continue it. Please bear with me :)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so one - this is my first VLD fic. If my characters are off, please do let me know (examples would be great!). If I’m doing something bad, let me know. If I’m doing something good, let me know. Feedback makes me a better writer, especially when I’m new to creating for the fandom. 
> 
> Two - This is a side project. Which means I'm not gonna be too harsh on myself in terms of quality. Sometimes it might seem like I'm rambling or my prose might not be as polished as my usual. I'm keeping this as stress free as possible.
> 
> I’m probably gonna dub this as my NaNoWriMo, but it’s second priority to my OTHER WIP (which is a FFVII fic). I’m gonna be swinging back and forth between the two until one of them is finished. Which brings me to:
> 
> Three - While I have vague ideas and plans, I haven’t got a full plot figured out, and I can’t guarantee that this one will be completed. 
> 
> I’ve never tried to balance two WIPs at once before, so it’s going to be an interesting experiment. 
> 
> So please let me know what you think. I’m honestly looking for feedback on everything. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the entire show, but since this takes place in Season 1, I’ve re-watched that today. Still, if I get anything wrong, let me know. 
> 
> I also don’t speak spanish, nor am I Cuban or hispanic in any way. If I get anything wrong in regards to that, I would like to know so that I can change things/learn. I’ve done a bit of research, but nothing compares to first hand experience.


End file.
